The Failure of Capitalism

Unfortunately, Capitalism is the de facto religion of America. I say this is our religion because one is pretty much considered to be un-American if you don’t believe in this economic system. It is equated with freedom itself – even though it is not freedom. To be opposed to Capitalism is to be considered a Communist in America. To be a patriotic American, one must BELIEVE.

The problem is: it doesn’t work. It’s that simple. The current collapse of the U.S. and world economy is not a one time thing – it is a recurring phenomenon in our history. Everyone knows about the Great Depression that began in 1929. But couldn’t that just be a weird coincidence? Two events don’t exactly prove that Capitalism doesn’t work, does it? No, it doesn’t. How about the Bank Panic of 1907? Would that help? That’s the one where J.P. Morgan had to use his private resources to save the entire country from financial disaster. Not enough? OK, how about the bank panic of 1893? Still not enough? How about the bank panic of 1873?  Let’s not even start with the recessions that come in between the depressions.

Even Alan Greenspan had to admit that his free market ideas were wrong and that they led to the collapse of the stock market. Yet, about half the country still worships the concept of a free market capitalist economy, refusing to see what is plain to see: American-style Capitalism is seriously flawed. As the Occupy Movement people point out, it is deliriously wonderful for about 1% of the population who own about 25% of the national wealth. It is the other 99% who suffer. The question we should be asking is this: why doesn’t Capitalism work for everyone? The answer is simple: it is literally out of control. The bankers of Wall Street control U.S. monetary policy. It almost seems that it has become a requirement these days that in order to be Secretary of the Treasury you first have to have a top position at Goldman Sachs – just so the government can be sure that you know how everything is supposed to work.

We have, in this country, a true oligarchy that cares only for the few wealthiest people in America. The one thing in America that the government feels compelled to protect is the wealth of the wealthiest. Consider the last collapse (not the one we are feeling right now – I mean the one George Bush created). What did the government save? The banks. Consider the situation in Europe now. The Euro zone is on the verge of collapse. Some countries, like Ireland, have already experienced a collapse of their economy. What was and is being saved in Europe? The banks. Why? Are these particular banks so crucial to the survival of mankind? Of course not. However, it is the extraordinarily wealthy people who own these banks who also own the governments of the major Capitalist countries.

The problem with Capitalism is that none of the wealthy Capitalists will acknowledge that it is not perfect and that it must be controlled. They hate the very idea of controls. (Good thing they’re not airline pilots.) You see, it cuts into their ability to make billions of dollars at the expense of the common man.  So…. we don’t have controls. And our economy periodically collapses. And the government saves the wealthy while letting the average citizens fend for themselves. After all, what do you expect from an oligarchy?

The time has finally come for the entire world to wake up and realize that uncontrolled Capitalism is horribly imperfect. It needs to be controlled. The wealthy people also need to be controlled. They must be prevented from grabbing control our government through bribery via lobbyists.  The governments of our “democracy” must be more democratically elected. Why is it that essentially every Senator and Congressman in our government is a millionaire? It’s because no ordinary person can afford to run for office.  We have a political system that perpetuates an oligarchy.

Capitalist greed has infected our banking system and our government to the extent that the people at the very top of government have lost touch with the people.  They only use the power of government to perpetuate their own wealth and – above all – preserve the banks. Preserve the banks at all costs, that is their mantra. That is literally their religion.

It doesn’t have to be this way. It shouldn’t be this way. The first step in fixing the problem is to nationalize all of the banks. Cut the head off of the snake. Banks should be operated only as a utility for the benefit of all citizens – so that all citizens can enjoy the fruits of Capitalism. The greedy moneylenders of America should be told to get a real job and stop being bloodsucking parasites on the 99%.

Gargantuan banks are not necessary for Capitalism to succeed. Indeed, they have been shown, time and again throughout our history, to be the cause of the failure of Capitalism. Monster banks, out of control, are an imminent danger to democracy and a free economy. History has demonstrated this time and again. So why doesn’t our government fix the problem? Because our monster banks own our government.

And that is why American Capitalism has had a history of recurring, catastrophic failures for well over 100 years.

Yet, we still believe.

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It’s Time to Rethink the Banking Industry

As another nation, Ireland, now peers into the abyss of economic chaos, once again governments are being called upon to bail out the banking industry. Does this sound vaguely familiar? Of course it does . We have been hearing this tune for the past couple of years, perhaps the most loudly in the U.S. where those bastions of our economy like Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and many more were once facing oblivion and financial Hell. A fate, perhaps, well deserved – but avoided by the intercession of our government. This act of semi-divine intercession is about to be repeated in Europe as that which must not come to pass is prevented from coming to pass.

Of course, I am referring to the collapse of the banking industry in Ireland. The current Irish government, similar in philosophy to the Bush/Cheney Republicans of the U.S., enjoyed the ride while they could. The run up in housing prices, the run up in wages, the run up in credit. It was all a bubble, no different from America’s bubble and equally unrecognized by the Republican economic philosophers at the time. Everyone thought it could go on for ever, except for a few economists. America had its Cassandra economist, Roubini.  Ireland had its Cassandra, McWilliams. Both were right. They called the collapse long in advance, but neither government will admit it, and neither will seek the advice of these bright economists to this day.  Why? We can only wonder.

Here’s another “why”. Why did the U.S. government feel the need to bail out the banks and why does the European Union feel the same? Does anyone know how to spell oligarchy? We are led to believe that the banks are the sine qua non of our economy. The loss of our banks would spell doom for civilization as we know it. Really? Just the banks, I suppose.  Oh no,wait. General Motors too. We couldn’t live without them either. But what about the thousands of individuals who lost their homes? What about the millions who are out of work? Do we not need them also? Apparently not. At least not with the same sense of urgency as the banks.

So let’s take a look at the banks. What, in essence, do they actually do? Well, at their core, they are a source of money. They make loans that people and businesses need in order to carry on their lives. But how does that work, you say? Here’s an example. Suppose old J.P. Morgan had a lot of money (which he did) and he decided to use that money to open a bank (which he did). You go into his bank and you borrow $1,000. Great! Now you only have to pay it back in easy installments of $49.99 for a period of about twenty – two months. Twenty-two? Wait, shouldn’t it be about twenty? Ah, we’re forgetting the interest of about $100, aren’t we? See, you borrow $1,000 but you have to pay old J.P. back $1,100. That’s how he makes money. As Ebenezer Scrooge said, “It’s business.”

But, here’s where the magic comes in: After you pay back old J.P. his money plus interest, he pockets his profit and then what does he do? He loans out that same $1,000 again! Yes! Isn’t that amazing? J.P. can loan out the same money over and over again and make money each time he does so, and his $1,000 never wears out! The best thing for old J.P. is that he doesn’t have to do any work to make money. He doesn’t produce a product, he doesn’t farm any land, he doesn’t build anything, he doesn’t even sell anything. Being a banker has to be just about the best job in the world because you don’t have to work to make money! Even better, bankers make more money than anybody and if they screw up and made stupid loans where they don’t get paid back, the government gives them all the money they lost so they can start lending all over again.

Now imagine you were a banker – like those Payday loan guys. You could loan out money  at $300% interest and get it back in a week! Or, what about if you were a different kind of banker – a credit card banker? You could loan money at 30% interest and it would take years and years for people to pay you back – maybe even a lifetime. Of course you would get your principal back pretty soon, but the poor credit card holder will be paying interest for a semi-eternity. But that is the beauty of the system – you can then loan out the original amount over and over again! And you don’t have to take risks like building televisions or cars that might not sell, or refrigerators that might be defective and people want their money back. No, banking is the ideal business for making tons of money – and the best thing of all is that our governments won’t let you fail! Who could want anything more?

How about the American people? Wouldn’t we want something more, something different? One might think so, but I don’t hear a lot of people complaining about our banking system. I guess that’s because if we change anything it would make us communist or something even worse – just like with health care, and public schools. Still, I have to wonder…why can’t our government run the entire banking system like a utility?  Do we really need privately owned banks that produce no tangible product and charge the highest interest rates possible? Why can’t we just get loans from a government bank at 0% interest? Why not? It would be our money anyway – you know: our tax money. Isn’t that a good use for our tax dollars? If the government, via the Federal Reserve, can print all the money it wants and then give it to the banks at extremely low interest rates, why can’t the government do the same thing for the citizens and eliminate the middlemen bankers who bleed us and our economy while doing no productive work at all? Is it really so un-American to even think about a redo for America’s banking system? Think about it….

Why wouldn’t it work?

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China: The New World Leader in Technology

I suppose we should have seen it coming when China launched its own version of the Apollo spacecraft – three Chinese astronauts circling the Earth – a few years ago.  It was at a time when the U.S. space program was, at best, going sideways, partnering with Russia, making short trips to the Space Station with the Shuttle. Not a whole lot of new things have been done by NASA recently, and now NASA’s most recent brainstrom, a return to the Moon, has been canceled. But this Chinese high speed rail deal is different. We’re not talking about the Moon anymore.

It has just been announced that China is in negotiations to build a high speed rail network connecting Europe and Asia. The trains that China will build, the fastest in the world, will travel almost as fast as a jet plane. People will be able to take high speed rail, using Chinese technology, from London to Beijing. China is now in talks with seventeen countries, among them England, Russia, France, and India to build the system.

So, how did the U.S. do in the competition for the job? Let’s be serious. Nobody even asked us. And why should they? We don’t make high speed trains. Our so-called high speed train, the Amtrak Acela, doesn’t come close to the performance of Chinese trains. We don’t build real high speed trains because we can’t. We don’t have the knowledge or the manufacturing capability. We are simply not a player in high speed rail technology. China is the clear leader with Japan a fairly close second.

It’s interesting that the U.S. press, to my knowledge, hasn’t even covered this story. I found it in the Irish Independent. So, does that mean that this isn’t part of the news that is worthy of print in America? Or does it mean something else? Could it be that our news media is unaware of this development? Or, could it be that, for whatever reason, they would just rather not tell us about it? I know; it sounds kind of paranoid, but I just went through eight years of Bush/Cheney, so don’t we all have a right to be paranoid? In fact, it seems that at least half the country is paranoid now, debating things like whether health care for all of us is good or bad (does that question even make sense?).

Meanwhile, China quietly pushes ahead on all fronts.  China’s economy is booming. China is already the primary manufacturer of most of the consumer goods that are sold in America. Oh, but that’s OK we said. It’s just low tech stuff. We don’t need those jobs anymore.  We’re a high tech country now. OK. So what high tech stuff do we make? Airplanes? Sure, if you count military planes (we’re really good at making things that kill people). How about commercial planes? Well, we’re down to Boeing now. Everyone else – names like Lockheed, McDonnell Douglas, Convair – not to mention Wright – they’re not in the business anymore. Most of the planes you see in the sky in America these days are built by the European company Airbus, or by the Canadian company Bombardier, or by the Brazilian company Embraer. Boeing is fading too. My guess is that the 787 will be its swan song for commercial aviation. The last of the American commercial airplane companies.

We need to understand the significance of this new announcement about a Chinese trans – Europe and Asia high speed rail system. The handwriting is on the wall. We have been eclipsed.  China is about to become the technological King of the World.  Under Bush we were obsessed with military attacks and military expenses and nothing else.  Not even Katrina could capture his attention for a microsecond. We have built the most efficient killing machines in the world, but we have an economy that is struggling to recover from banking disaster and a seriously decayed civilian technological manufacturing infrastructure that can’t begin to compete with China. Our only hope is that there will be a need for financing for this magnificent rail system. Our banks could make the loans and then package them as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and then, just in case the borrowers don’t pay back the loans our banks could buy credit default swaps from our insurance companies and, of course, then sell the swaps on the derivatives market. Or at least create an options market for the CDOs and swaps. We’re pretty good at that.  We just need to figure out how the average citizen makes money this way.

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Will the Real Perpetrators of the Meltdown Ever Be Prosecuted?

Last week the U.S. Department of Justice announced the formation of the new Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. Among other things, this task force is charged with bringing to justice those individuals who caused the worldwide economic collapse. Ummm… OK.  So…does that mean that nobody was minding the store before this? Does this mean that until now there were no laws governing the financial industry or does it just mean that the Department of Justice just wasn’t paying any attention to those existing laws?  Well, let’s see…if they are planning to find and prosecute those people who created the meltdown by deliberately misrepresenting the value of mortgages on the resale market, or if they will be going after the people who deliberately gave out “liar loans”, knowing full well that the people who were being granted the loans could never pay them back, or if they will be going after the people who fraudulently misrepresented their ability to pay for the mortgages in order to play “buy and flip”, I guess that means that there were already laws against these practices. Otherwise they would have to create new laws outlawing past practices, which I believe is frowned upon.

So…if there were already laws on the books that made it illegal to do all the things that led to the meltdown, I have a small question. What were the agents of the Department of Justice doing while the world was collapsing?  What were they doing in the years leading up to the collapse?  Come to think of it, what were all those guys over at the Securities and Exchange Commission doing while the world was hurtling toward the cliff edge?  I think we all know.  They weren’t doing anything to prevent it. Which is why when several people reported Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme to the SEC they were ignored.  Of course, when Bernie’s scheme collapsed and a bunch of rich people lost everything, well…the government had to step in.  Didn’t they?

OK. So how many of those people at the SEC who deliberately ignored Bernie Madoff’s practices over the years have lost their jobs? Better still, how many have been prosecuted for allowing a massive Ponzi scheme to exist when it was their sworn duty to prevent such things from happening?  Or are we saying that no one had the duty to protect us from this sort of fraud? Or are we just that we’ll overlook this dereliction of duty this time?

OK, since we are on the subject…how many people at the Department of Justice are being investigated for doing nothing to prevent the worldwide economic collapse when it was their job to detect and prevent all the sorts of fraud that led to the meltdown?

And, if we want to start looking within the government for people who are culpable (and why shouldn’t we?) should we just confine our investigation to the ranks of the Department of Justice? Does that make sense?  Let’s face it.  This was a truly massive exercise in deception. Our big banks (the ones we saved because we can’t live without them) were selling billions (trillions?) of dollars worth of worthless mortgages to any sucker in the entire world who would be foolish enough to invest in them. Now, I find it hard to believe that there weren’t a lot of people higher up in the former administration who knew exactly what was going on. I expect that most of the wealthy bankers knew too.  All the rich folk were playing a sort of real estate roulette via misrepresented values of U.S. real estate and the mortgages that encumbered these properties.

So, now we have a new Task Force.  Oh, good.  But somehow, I just sort of feel that this small effort is not going to clean out the Augean Stables of Washington or Wall Street.  More likely, it will be more of the usual Washington window dressing.  Oh sure, they’ll probably nail a few unfortunate suckers who were stupid enough to get caught, but the big racketeers who were behind this gargantuan fraud? I don’t think so.  The oligarchs are too deeply embedded, the invisible wealthy have too much power. The real perpetrators will not only get away with the destruction of the world’s economy, they will retain the profits they made at our expense.  It’s just how our system works.

So, to the newly rejuvenated DOJ, I say, “Give ’em Hell!”

But for me, frankly, I feel a bit like poor Vladimir and Estragon, waiting endlessly for Godot.

 

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Too Big To Fail: The Big Bank Lie

About a year ago, when it looked like the world was about to end and the economies of countries around the world were beginning to melt away like a Salvador Dali painting, the leaders of the U.S. government, i.e. President Bush and Treasury Secretary Paulson told us that we had only days, maybe only minutes, left to rescue those great bastions of Capitalism – the banks of Wall Street.  Everybody panicked. We couldn’t shovel money into the banks fast enough. If they died, we died – or so we were told anyway.

Today, the dust has settled, the banks are alive – having been given massive transfusions of life-giving money – and the people of America are left wondering: what just happened?  Here’s what happened: we were robbed by the banks.  After Lehman Brothers melted into a little puddle of red ink, there were reports that Goldman Sachs might be next.  Goldman Sachs!?!?  How could that be?  Isn’t Goldman the underlying sine qua non of American capitalism? If Goldman goes down won’t the entire country just dissolve? That’s what we were led to believe by Bush, Paulson, and their cronies.

So what happened? We (that means you and me, the American taxpayers) gave them a loan, called TARP, to keep them alive. We gave a lot of banks a lot of money because we were told we couldn’t survive without them.  They were “too big to fail”. Of course we didn’t give them our own cash, because we were also drowning in the melting economy – so we just printed the money and decided to let our descendants pay the government back through their tax bills over the coming centuries.

Here is where the big scam comes in: while Americans made a lot of stupid decisions buying houses they couldn’t afford at prices they couldn’t pay, the banks were equally – if not more – stupid because they gave us all those loans that we couldn’t pay back.  If the banks had the intelligence of a rock they would have realized that making such loans was pure folly.  They used to know that, but in their greed they put aside their knowledge as they chased the huge profits that can be made in a bubble economy.  So, what had happened was that we, the people, lost a bundle and so did the banks, but the banks got reimbursed for their losses – by us! But nobody reimbursed us! So now, not only do we owe the money we foolishly invested in overpriced houses, we are also on the hook for all the TARP money we printed because a lot of that will never be paid back.

Meanwhile, the bailed out banks – the ones we can’t live without, the ones that are too big to fail because our Capitalist economy depends on them – don’t want to play Capitalism anymore. They don’t want to lend money anymore. Instead they are hogging all their TARP money, refusing to lend money to people who need money for many purposes. In other words the big hog banks aren’t really functioning as banks anymore, which leads one to wonder why we thought they were too big to fail. In a sense they have already failed.  If they aren’t lending then they have failed in the principal purpose of a capitalist bank – making capital available. So if they have failed in their role, and yet, here we are, still alive and functioning, doesn’t that mean that they really weren’t “too big to fail” after all?  Aren’t the big hog banks proving every day that we really don’t need them after all? Isn’t this the big lie of Bush and Paulson?  Isn’t this the big lie of Wall Street?

One of the great drags on our economy now is the lack of available capital to restart businesses.  If we had simply nationalized the banks we would now have government-run banks that would be in the business of lending money to us because we would be the owners of the banks! They would sort of be like giant credit unions.  Instead, we have the Boss Hogs of Wall Street sitting on 200 billion dollars of TARP money, unwilling to do that for which we bailed them out.  The TARP bailout didn’t rescue the economy – the money we gave to the banks is still sitting in the banks, so how could it have any effect on the economy? The only thing TARP did was prove one thing: the whole Too Big To Fail story was nothing but a Big Bank Lie that only passed on the losses of the big banks to the American people.  We were duped. We were done a huge disservice by former President George Bush and former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, and we will be paying the price for this for generations to come.

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