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How Capitalism Dies
Submitted by Bill Bonner via Acting-Man blog,
Two Comedy Acts
Today, we’re going to tell you why America’s middle class is getting poorer. Or put another way, we’re going to show you how capitalism dies.
Two comedy acts appeared last week: President Obama’s State of the Union address and Mario Draghi’s QE announcement.
Mr. Obama claimed credit for a “recovery” that has left the typical American poorer than he was before. And not only is he poorer, but also he is more dependent on the very people who engineered the phony recovery. (See below.)
Mr. Draghi followed up with a series of one-liners, the gist of which was that he now proposes to save Europe from the specter of inadequate inflation.
Europe’s casino boss
Photo credit: Roesseler/EPA
ECB to the Rescue
Who could take Draghi seriously? After all, what’s wrong with stable prices? Nothing at all! The 19th century had fairly stable prices… as well as the fastest GDP and wage growth in human history. Serious consumer price inflation didn’t begin in the US until the 1970s, when America’s new flexible, adaptable, expandable, super-duper fiat money came into service.
Since then, the cost of living in the US is up roughly 600%. And the rate of economic growth has fallen. Mr. Draghi did not mention these facts when he announced his euro-debasement program. But it hardly mattered. The real purpose of euro-zone QE is the same as the real purpose of the US version – to prevent the cronies from getting what they deserve.
They own hundreds of billions of euro worth of European sovereign bonds – now trading at the highest prices and lowest yields in recorded history. Many were bought with negative yields. And now, with aging populations, rising debt levels, gummed-up regulations, rising living costs, rising taxes and falling revenues, there is almost no way these bonds can be worth what speculators paid for them.
How are the insiders going to get their money back? The ECB to the rescue! It promises to transfer $1.3 trillion to the financial elite over the next 21 months – buying sovereign bonds and other slippery obligations at the rate of €60 billion ($67 billion) every month. Not that we are complaining; we’ve got a sense of humor!
Besides, we’re card-carrying members of the 1%… and happy to get a share of the loot. If only we had bought those Italian sovereign bonds! So, there you have it…
In the New World, the commander-in-chief claims credit for something he didn’t do. In the Old World, the central-banker-in-chief claims to be doing something not worth doing. Neither is doing what he should do.
Germany’s 2 year note now sport a yield to maturity of minus 0.143%. All over the developed world, more than $ 4 trillion in sovereign debt are now trading at negative yields. This is no longer just return-free risk, it is at the next stage where you have to pay for the risk to lend money to governments that in a sober assessment cannot be called anything but effectively insolvent – click to enlarge.
America’s Disappearing Wealth Creators
We chuckle … and move on. We were supposed to tell you about how it was possible for the average American to get poorer at a time that should have been the most productive and prosperous ever. We won’t disappoint you.
Who makes people better off? President Obama? Mario Draghi? Can you think of a single thing a politician or central banker has contributed to the welfare of the world? We can’t.
Did they invent hamburgers? Did they pave roads? Did they produce wheat or lay bricks? We’re exaggerating to make our point. They are, no doubt, amusing at dinner parties. And they pet their dogs.
But sticking to the material world, the world of getting and spending, has a president or central banker ever put in a decent day’s work or added a single centime or farthing to the nation’s GDP? Not that we know of. Then who has?
If we had to put a title on this little discussion, we might call it: “America’s Disappearing Wealth Creators.” Or if we wanted to be more lurid: “How the Zombies Ate America’s Entrepreneurs.”
Last week, we reported on how more and more people depend on the US federal government for their daily bread. Here’s the chart from American Enterprise Institute’s Nicholas Eberstadt:
Dependence on government – the one true growth industry left
As the number of zombies increases, it leaves fewer people creating real jobs, building real businesses and paying real taxes.
In short, the people who create wealth are vanishing.
Jim Clifton, the chairman of Gallup, reports that, for the first time ever, there are more US businesses closing than starting up:
“There continues to be a direct link between market cap (which measures the total value of all outstanding shares) and performance. The US now ranks not first, not second, not third, but 12th among developed nations in terms of business startup activity. Countries such as Hungary, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Sweden, Israel and Italy all have higher startup rates than America does.
We are behind in starting new firms per capita, and this is our single most serious economic problem. Yet it seems like a secret. You never see it mentioned in the media, nor hear from a politician that, for the first time in 35 years, American business deaths now outnumber business births.
The US Census Bureau reports that the total number of new business startups and business closures per year – the birth and death rates of American companies – has crossed for the first time since the measurement began.
I am referring to employer businesses, those with one or more employees, the real engines of economic growth. Four hundred thousand new businesses are being born annually nationwide, while 470,000 per year are dying.”
US business start-up and closings – an ominous crossover.
In the early 1970s, there were about 200,000 new US businesses created each year (net of closures). Now, the number is negative. Why are Americans getting poorer?
Look no further. No new businesses (net). No new jobs (again net). No new wealth. Under Obama and Draghi, crony capitalism flourishes. Real capitalism dies.
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Am I the only one sick of the term "crony CAPITALISM"? What we have today is not "capitalism" at all, in any way, shape or form.
cronyism works for me.
But but... We got iPhones and huge TEE VEEES and shit.
So who needs anything else?
Free big screens in the fema gulags. Yep, could well be.
Roll the Obamacare neutron employment bomb in with the Baby Boomer demographics and startups/entrepreneurs are in the perfect storm. Surfs up. Big waves. Kawabunga dude.
It's "crony government" that gets me.
~"the people who create wealth are vanishing."~
They're not vanishing, they've just taken to the sidelines. Why expose yourself to an ever growing line of regulators whose sole purpose is to make your enterprise more difficult and expensive, (less profitable) to operate? Business people are the smarter ones in the economy. Having to compete in the marketplace makes them so. So when these same people look at the conditions today, after 6 years of Obamanomics, they plainly have no desire to try to start a busniess or expand the one they have. Until Congress decides to reign in Obama's socialist policies they won't be moving off the sidelines any time soon.
I'd like to see a chart of increasing Galtism.
I have money to invest, but it is not going to be in this climate.
I imagine you're NOT talking about direct investment, lakecity55. If you are, the last thing you would want to do (from a pure business risk-perspective) is throw any money at a small business.
Tax and regulatory burden at the fed, state and local levels are absolutely punishing. The much bigger government lie than 'job creation' is 'support small businesses'. Large corporations are easy to tax and regulate - they have dozens of employees dedicated to those worthless activities. Anyone will less than a hundred empolyees - forget it. Less than a dozen employees? They're insane to try to survive in this environment.
Not that it matters much anyways because small businesses are in worse shape than ever to get all that 'financial stimulus' near-zero rate financing. You're lucky if you get a dime out of the banks at whatever usury rate they're actually willing to lend at. Local banks and credit unions? Hell, they're folding faster than the small businesses they can't lend to if they can't get anyone to buy them.
Medium and Large corporations are first-class citizens to the government. Small businesses? Useless eaters in survival mode. I've never heard so much grumbling from small business owners than I have in the last year or two. These are relatively positive-outlook type hard-working people that don't bitch about things like working 80-hour weeks.
The best investment now would be those treadmill bankruptcy outfits. The happiest people I've run across lately are small business owners that declared bankruptcy and bailed. They're like Greece: if there's never any chance of paying off your debt in the foreseeable future, then why the hell keep borrowing more just to keep your head above water? It only prolongs the agony. Same with lot of underemployed people declaring bankruptcy. Credit ruined? Who gives a damn - they never want to borrow money for anything ever again.
Government had done everything possible to discourage small businesses that depend on bank financing. It's kind of like destroying the middle class - the government parasite feeds off both of them. When both are gone, you have Greece.
Regulations have nothing to do with startup stats - its about demand reduction, supply consolidation into marginal cost advantaged - critical mass entities (read Amazon et al) and cartel / monopoly distribution of goods and services
"Regulations have nothing to do with startup stats"
Even a blind squirrel can see the fallacy of that statement. I will make a guess that you've never encountered the burdens placed on creating a new business be it product or service like many of us have. You must be one lucky entrepreneur...
I could be wrong, but it seems to me that the "explosion" in "entrepreneurianism" is a result of job insecurity. For me, and I'm no expert, but people *had* to turn to self-reliance in order to survive the desires of the "capitalist" class in order to essentially not starve. It seemed to work for a while, but even that (creating work for oneself) is no longer working anymore either as more and more is being bled from the poor to the rich.
Agreed, cronyism is NOT capitalism......
Also known as f@ckda99%ism.
Sure, but it is cronyism that pays lip service to capitalism. Cronyism, crony capitalism, corporatism, faux-capitalism, etc, etc... are all somewhat descriptive terms of the shitshow going on today.
We were told this was simply a softer gentler form of capitalism, the hybridizing of socialism and capitialism. We know now it is actually something quite different, regardless of what we call it. By attaching the term capitalism to it, they are attempting to simultaneously make it acceptable to those who still prize the original concept of capitalism as "free trade" while also disparaging it. Kind of like the way we used to see the term "discriminating" used to suggest someone was intelligent and aware of quality differences in what would otherwise be considered equal, and now is a disparagement to any who would do so, as it is a crime to point out "inequalities" of result.
Cronyism always destroys things. There are always people out there looking to bleed from others so they never have to work. Washington DC and other Western capitals are teeming with these folks. What's sad is that this cancer has gotten so large people are mistaking the tumour for a vital organ now.
"What we have today is not "capitalism" at all"
Agreed. Capitalism with a moral foundation is what made the U.S. the most prosperous nation known to man. Even our "poor" are wealthy compared to the poor, and middle class, in socialist/communist countries. Socialist politicians are destroying the prosperous U.S. as quickly as they can.
I can't imagine starting a business today with the main purpose of OSHA, EPA, FDA, EEOC, DOE, IRS, NRLB, HHS (the list goes on and on) government agencies trying to shut you down unless you pay bribes to government agencies/officials and spend much of your "working" hours filling out government mandated paperwork (or they'll shut you down).
Yup. My grandfather started a business in America. My father started a business in America.
I started a business in... Asia.
The government and all its lobbied parasites are killing the productive. And if the government doesn't kill your product, some cunt with a lawyer will.
@creepy cracker
If I hear one more person blame what is happening now, on socialism, I will puke. What is happening now is the global corporations buying our gov and making the rich richer. BO has surrounded himself with Wall Street banksters. This ain't socialism.
Puke away...
It may not be formal, sanctioned, socialism as in the National Socialist German Workers' Party but it is big government, socialist, tendencies that cause these problems. The Fed then "prints" money to cover government spending.
I don't think you should puke. It is the same enemy.
In my opinion, it is better to try and unite against a common enemy than make a big deal out of minor differences.
It seems to me the "global corporations" support socialism. Socialism after all isn't about wealth distribution--it's about wealth control. The useful idiots, who drink the kool-aid and actually think socialism is good for society, advance their cause--which makes socialism a legitimate target.
"What we have today is not "capitalism" at all, in any way, shape or form."
Unfortunatley, every liberal/progressive/socialist just calls it plain old capitalism.
That's because what has really FAILED is liberal/progressive/socialism.
I believe the correct term is: "Kleptocracy."
You have a point. Let's just call it what it is: Facism.
Fascism is regarded as nationalistic right wing socialism, there's nothing right wing about the homos running the West. So the term is misleading.
fas·cism fascism; noun: an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.Fuck all the homos that don't know how to use a dictionary.
The left is responsible for portraying fascism as "right-wing" so of course it's misleading. That is the point.
That's how socialists try to distance themselves from Hitler.
It's also why people play into the left's hands by referring to them as "liberal."
Words matter. But most people are too stupid or lazy to care that words matter.
Ergo: Most people are useful idiots.
Left...left..left, right, left.
Right...right...right, left, right
Left...left..left, right, left.
Right...right...right, left, right
Left...left..left, right, left.
Right...right...right, left, right
You just do not get it Harbanger.
Keep on mindlessly marching to that cadence.
No, I get it Tom. All the useful idiots have lost their ability to differentiate between anything, it's all the same. Just need some new strawman to blame for all the govs failings.
BTW, I think Gerald Celente's definition of fascism is pretty good--the merger of state and corporate powers.
I believe that facism was first characterized that way by Benito Mussolini.
Todays economy is rooted in fascism. The interest of the state dovetails with that of the corporate sector. Today it is about control. Corporations have transcended seeking mere profits and are now investing heavily in political power.
One time our finacial sector provided capital for new ventures. Now it is a parasite sucking away what little wealth remains in the economy. It is only able to do so because it is now government protected.
All we can do is play the game on the surface while making real savings and investments outside of the financial sector and gov't oversight. Tricky but possible with effort.
I have said it before, but it bears repeating: it isn't fascism because there is no room for INTERNATIONAL corporations in fascism. Fascism is a nationalist ideology. What is the INTERNATIONALIST socialist ideology? Its been around for a long time, and it does have a name.
Communism.
Sorry if people don't want to hear it, but that's exactly what it is. BY DEFINITION.
crony corporatism, kakistocracy
"crony capitalism" works for me.
It makes the essential point.
"Capitalism" just means investing a pile of money for future benefit. If the "future benefit" occurs because government preference or monopoly, that's a problem, and DOESN'T deliver the true promise of capitalism.
Hence, it is really necessary to identify "free market capitalism" as true capitalism, and things that may merely look like capitalism as something else.
Moron, what we have here today is CRONY CAPITALISM! You can't stand hearing it because all your Rightwingnut friends keep telling you it's Socialism and Obama that are the cause of our failure.
PS DUMBASS> Notice when the business creation went negative...at the end of 8 years of Bush's "Dream Society". Was Bush a Socialist?
That's arrogant firebrander, sepcially since most of the tenets of capitalism are hardly adhered to. Crony Capitalism essentially refers to lobbyist capitalists competing for politcal suasion for (1) market protection through regulation, (2) subsidies, (3) export/import tarif privelages, etc., etc,. That is crony capitalism.
However, this assumes that the discussion ends there - but it doesn't, and this is where I agree with Flacon that the key tenets of capitalism have been lost through various measures, such as:
1. bailouts
2. price fixing of the only price signal that really matters (interest rates)
3. the assumption of risk by government at the expense of the tax payer (FEDs MBS and CDO bond buying program)
4. the permanent installment of moral hazard through unabated FED POMO.
5. and my favorite - the evisceration of fixed income and savers that steward their wealth through negative real interest rate suppression
6. taxation loopholes that punish income, but, provide safe haven for capital gains.
7. food stamp program - for everybody! - all the time! how the fuck does that become a tenet of capitalism?
8. Loss of accountability to the financial district or anybody who works in it. if you fail, you still win with your severance pay.
9. The incentive for entrepreneurs has been crushed through not only socialist regressive tax policies, but, also through regulations that protect various industries - that further create monolpolies the repress competition - a hallmark of free market capitalism. the market cannot even reward ingenuity and risk taking even if it wanted to. Add to this the restrictions imposed on basic rights and in particular rights to self ownership. Kids can't even open a lemonade stand without the fucking government knowing about it.
10. Government sanctioned and controlled - one size fits all even though its fucking shitty - healthcare.
My point is simply this: Even the crony's are having second thoughts. The capitalism that made America great - it no longer exists. You can't even recognize it, much less fucking find it. Its long gone. Better to simply call it what it really is - state fascism. Capitalism left the building 44 years ago.
Yes, flacon!
There is NO "capitalism" when private banks have the power to make the public "money" supply out of nothing as debts, which fraud is enforced by governments. There is ONLY organized crime and controlled opposition.
Sublime "capitalism" is consistent with living organisms acting as entropic pumps of energy flows, that have to spend energy to get back energy, to then have that energy to be able to spend again, to try to get a new supply of energy, as the way that life is a living fire which must constantly achieve more fuel. However, that actual "capitalism" includes fraud and murder, and indeed, those are the real foundations of the systems. Hence, what exists now is what happens when fraud and murder are actually the foundation of "capitalism."
I repeat this quote:
http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/NWO/silent_weapons_quiet_wars.htm
Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars
"… Energy is recognized as the key to all activity on earth. Natural science is the study of the sources and control of natural energy, and social science, theoretically expressed as economics, is the study of the sources and control of social energy. Both are bookkeeping systems: mathematics. Therefore, mathematics is the primary energy science. And the bookkeeper can be king if the public can be kept ignorant of the methodology of the bookkeeping. … In this structure, credit, presented as a pure element called “currency,” has the appearance of capital, but is in effect negative capital. Hence, it has the appearance of service, but is in fact, indebtedness or debt. …"
The deeper problems are due to the bigger picture being that human realities were always organized lies operating robberies. All private property was based upon backing up claims with coercions. Money was measurement backed by murder, because the debt controls depended upon the death controls. However, all of those were most socially successful when done through the maximum possible frauds and deceits. Therefore, we have ended up with governments being the biggest form of organized crime, controlled by the best organized gangs of criminals. They defend what they are doing with jargon about "free market capitalism," however, since they CAN make the public "money" supply out of nothing, and that fraud IS enforced by governments, that has the same practical effect as being able to create "capital" out of nothing. Being able to make "money" out of nothing rigs the price of that "money," which then rigs the price of everything else measured using that form of "money."
Through the privatized Money-As-Debt system "Free Market Capitalism" was DESTROYED! That anti-capital annihilates capital. The irony is that the international bankers of "finance capitalism" have destroyed that "capitalism." Runaway financialization was runaway fraud, enforced by governments. Hence, the banksters operate through the supreme form of anti-capitalism, by being able to make the public "money" supply out of nothing as debts. AFTER that legalized counterfeiting of the public "money" supply has been achieved, then there is no more "capitalism," and no adjective that modifies that non-existent, or fake "capitalism" makes sense. Thus, the phrase crony capitalism is WRONG, and similarly so for all of the other versions, such as "vulture capitalism," etc. ...
A way to make the sublime notions of "capitalism" make sense again would be to understand how and why human beings and human civilizations actually operate according to the principles and methods of organized crime, BECAUSE THEY OPERATE AS ENTROPIC PUMPS OF ENERGY FLOWS. However, those who were the most successful at doing that then were able to dominate their society so much that there is nothing which is publicly significant but controlled opposition against those established systems. There are some extraordinarily tangled up bullshit social stories which have dominated the natural languages that we use, as well as the dominate philosophy of science. Theoretically, we should understand "real capitalism" and "free markets" operating as energy systems, and as the dynamic equilibria between different energy systems. However, doing that requires reversing most of our basic paradigms regarding how we perceive politics.
What has looped all the way around has been the successfully spirals of deceits and frauds, as both the foundation, as well as the superstructure, of the political economy. Human beings living as hunters and gatherers in their environment developed much bigger and more sophisticated civilizations, which were still basically the same. The banksters are making a killing. They have killed whatever used to be "free market capitalism" by being able to more and more dominate that with the methods of organized crime, which have resulted in the only publicly significant opposition being controlled.
By and large, the controlled opposition still wants to go back to believing in impossible ideals, based on false fundamental dichotomies. However, the most profound political problem, which in principle has no solution, is that NOBODY GUARDS THE GUARDIANS. For ordinary people, they could only better participate in the political economy IF there was some effective rule of law, that leveled the playing field. However, in fact, that playing field has been tilted to become a vertical cliff. The banksters at the top, who can make the public "money" supply (as "capital") out of nothing can drop those bombs on all the people at the bottom of that cliff, while those that the bottom can do nothing to hit back.
The article above was another classic example of a reactionary revolutionary, presenting a relatively superficial analysis of the problem. "Capitalism" in the sense of operating as entropic pumps of energy, NEVER DIES, because energy is never destroyed. The "free market" in the sense of the dynamic equilibria of different entropic pumps of energy NEVER DIES either, for the same reason.
However, the masses of mainstream morons that we call the middle classes have become to successfully brainwashed to believe in bullshit, so that they have been conditioned to not want to understand their own sense of false class consciousness. Furthermore, all class differences continue to be relatively hollow compared to the universality of everyone operating as entropic pumps of energy flows, in the same overall context of the natural environment.
As long as the majority of people continue to believe in false fundamental dichotomies and the related impossible ideals, then the could only be more bogus, bullshit "solutions" based upon those basic mistakes. The sublime paradox is that the best ways to describe how entropic energy pumps manifest through human beings and human civilizations are as the principles and methods of organized crime. That is not the except, that is the real foundation, since human beings, as soon as we define them as separate from their environment, must operate as robbers, and as soon as we define some human beings as separate from others, then they too partake of that robbery, which the political economy has made more sophisticated as forms of enforced frauds.
I REPEAT THE BASICS:
THERE IS NOTHING BUT
ORGANIZED CRIME, AND
CONTROLLED OPPOSITION.
Ideally, we should develop better dynamic equilibria between the different systems of organized lies operating robberies. However, the established degree of dominance of the biggest bullies, and their bullshit social stories, means that there are no publicly significant groups that are not controlled opposition groups, allegedly against the ways that governments have become the biggest form of organized crime, controlled by the best organized gangsters, which are currently the international banksters.
As long as we continue to have politicians who are the banksters' puppets, voted for by enough of the muppets, then we are going to continue to see the runaway fascist plutocracy juggernaut turn more and more of the people into its road kill. However, tragically, those established systems (where the oligarchical plutocrats greatest from of "wealth" is to be able to make the public "money" supply out of nothing, while that fraud is enforced by governments against everyone else) ARE AUTOMATICALLY GETTING WORSE, FASTER ... especially since the only significant opposition stays within the same bullshit frame of reference.
The controlled opposition groups to the banksters continue to promote the same old-fashioned false fundamental dichotomies, and related impossible ideals, which continue to cause the opposite to happen in the real world. Thus, the bullshit language that "capitalism is dying," as it is being replaced by "crony capitalism," or any other similar adjective that is supposed to qualify what is presumed to still basically be "capitalism."
The same goes for the bullshit use of labels, such as the words "socialism" or "communism," etc. ... Most of the ways that people use various labels for phenomena in political economy have practically no relationship with the dictionary definitions of those labels. Furthermore, most of the actual social facts have almost nothing in common with the dictionary definitions of the various labels that people popularly use to discuss political economy.
THERE IS NOTHING ELSE BUT THE DYNAMIC EQUILIBRIA OF DIFFERENT SYSTEMS OF ORGANIZED LIES OPERATING ROBBERIES, AND THE ONLY WAY THAT ANY KIND OF ACTUAL "FREE MARKET CAPITALISM" COULD ACTUALLY EXIST IS WITHIN THOSE KINDS OF DYNAMIC EQUILIBRIA.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to exaggerate the degree to which the successful development of organized crime, as the foundation of civilization, has resulted in there being practically nothing else than controlled opposition against that. There is almost universal dominance of BULLSHIT LANGUAGE which dominates the discussion of political economy.
Theoretically, political economy ought to be discussed in ways which are consistent with the evolutionary ecologies of energy systems. Those are the only ways in which "free market capitalism" would have any genuine meaning, that was not mangled beyond recognition by bullshit. However, almost nobody wants to do that, because everyone was personally "successful" to the degree that they were able to operate inside of fundamentally fraudulent financial accounting systems.
"Crony capitalism," as a form of triumphantly runaway organized crime, has gone out of control, and is destroying the middle class, particularly because those mainstream morons continue to believe too much in the same old-fashioned bullshit, which was originally promoted by the biggest bullies, and which is now promoted by the various controlled opposition groups, who are mostly reactionary revolutionaries.
Without a deeper understanding of the problems, then there could be no genuinely better resolutions of those problems. However, the continuing TRIUMPH OF BULLSHIT LANGUAGE is manifested in the statement made at the conclusion to the article above:
"Crony capitalism flourishes.
Real capitalism dies."
For the reasons I outlined above, that statement is the same kind of old-fashioned, bullshit use of language, which continues to be a sterile dead-end. As flacon stated, I am sick of the misuse of the phrase "crony capitalism." However, I am even more sick of the silly notions that surround what "real capitalism" is supposed to be!
I REPEAT:
Political economy should be discussed in ways which are consistent with the evolutionary ecologies of energy systems. However, doing that better requires overcoming the degree to which the biggest bullies' bullshit world view was built into the natural languages that we use, as well as the philosophy of science which was also dominated by the biggest bullies' bullshit world view, the same as all other social enterprises were.
Given the degree to which there is practically nothing else than organized crime and controlled opposition, there is practically no way to have more genuinely scientific political economy. The foundation of the established systems are ENFORCED FRAUDS. The vast majority of the middle class that are being destroyed do not understand that, because they have been conditioned to not want to understand that. Furthermore, almost everyone who pretends to be educating them, or waking them up to those basic social facts, tend to be controlled opposition groups, who follow their relatively good analysis with their favourite old-fashioned bullshit "solutions," because their original analysis was superficially correct, but still too shallow, and therefore, their bullshit "solutions" were still too silly to ever work.
We can not develop better dynamic equilibria between the different systems of organized lies operating robberies unless we start using UNITARY MECHANISM to understand those, rather than continue to rely upon false fundamental dichotomies, and their related impossible ideals. Human beings and human civilizations NECESSARILY operate as entropic pumps of energy flows. However, the biggest bullies' bullshit presents that in the maximum possible backward ways, which is why our actual death controls operate through the maximum possible deceits, to back up financial controls based on the maximum possible frauds.
It is not good enough to merely recognize that governments are the biggest form of organized crime, controlled by the best organized gangs of criminals, unless one penetrated more deeply into understanding how and why that is the case. It is NOT possible to stop human realities from being entropic pumps of energy, however, it is POSSIBLE to perceive that different. The basic problem with the lower classes is that they do not understand that they are members of an organized crime gang, or a military organization, called their country. Indeed, they have been deeply conditioned to not want to understand that. Indeed, they are surrounded by controlled opposition groups, which actually facilitate the runaway triumphant organized crime of the ruling classes to dominate.
The article above was merely another little example of that overall process. There is NO fundamental dichotomy between organized crime versus government. Governments are simply the biggest form of organized crime, controlled by the best organized gangs of criminals. The only genuine solutions would depend upon enough of the lower classes to comprehend that better, on deeper and deeper levels.
As long as the reactionary revolutionaries, who are the controlled opposition to the established systems, continue to lead the middle class backwards, then things will continue to get worse, faster ... Articles like the one above use BULLSHIT LANGUAGE inside of that predicament. Authors of such articles I refer to as being Black Sheeple, whose solutions are to recommend that everyone should become better Sheeple. On the contrary, I assert that the genuine solutions are for everyone to become better Wolves, in the sense of better understanding how and why entropic energy pumps are best described by the principles and methods of organized crime.
I do NOT propose the impossible ideals, that we could stop governments from being basically forms of organized crime. Rather, I propose that IF enough people understood that enough, then we could develop better dynamic equilibria in the social robbery rates. It takes a radical critique of "free market capitalism" to resurrect that within the overall context of perceiving human beings as entropic pumps of energy. However, that is POSSIBLE, and could theoretically be done in ways which would enable more "real capitalism."
However, OBVIOUSLY, too bad, so sad, BUT, at the present time there is practically nothing which is publicly significant other than organized crime and controlled opposition, within which context I expect the lower classes to continue to end up being the road kill of the runaway fascist plutocracy juggernaut. The mainstream moron middle classes will very likely continue being strangled to death, while they will continue to be misled by the various reactionary revolutionaries in the controlled opposition groups.
THIS IS CAPITALISM!!! It has existed no other way. And the banks don't create our 'money supply' they create a debt substitute and call it the 'money supply'. The actual Legal Tender Money Supply stands a $1.3-Trillion, everything else is bankster/Wall Street credit/debt, an obligation to pay in legal tender. By the way it was Capitalism that built and supplyed the government.
I agree that "banks don't create our 'money supply' they create a debt substitute and call it the 'money supply'."
That "debt substitute" is not "capital," however, that fraud is enforced by the government, through requiring the payment of taxes in that form, as well as through legal tender legislation, therefore, that "debt substitute" is actually "anti-capital."
Just like anti-matter annihilates matter,
"anti-capital" annihilates capitalism.
It is a chicken and egg problem to ask which came first ...
It was NOT the operation of the ideal theory of "free market capitalism" that enabled the European invasion into North America to rob the natives of everything that they have previously had for more than ten thousand years. That was simply organized crime on a large scale, which mainly worked through genocides, (then later assimilated the survivors.)
It was NOT the ideal theory of "free market capitalism" that operated the slavery systems that became a huge part of the wealth that was thereby accumulated by the slave masters.
In a very abstract sense (after one deliberately ignores that most of North American was robbed from the natives, and that a lot of the early history of the American economy was based on slavery), I agree that the more genuine kinds of capitalism, which existed earlier in the history of the American democratic republic, was a source of wealth "that built and supplied the government."
However, since the Federal Reserve Board was enacted, along with the income tax law, in 1913, American "capitalism" had been grievously eroded. American "capitalism" was more and more transformed into total bullshit, after the gold window was closed in 1971. Since then, there has been a nearly perfect match to the mathematics of the exponential growth of total American debts, ALL BASED ON MAKING THAT "MONEY" OUT OF NOTHING, AS ENFORCED FRAUDS, which systematically undermined and destroyed "free market capitalism."
Ron Paul used to campaign against what he called ""crony CAPITALISM" in 2008 and 2012.
While I support Dr Paul, I personally prefer the term "crony CAPITALISM". Because it is not capitalism but socialism... but not everyone is equal, it is run by cronyism".
Keep in mind, the Republicans like to call it with the 3 P's, "public-private partership".
3/4 of a century ago, our fathers and grandfathers fought against it - they called it facism.
oops- that was supposed to be "I personally prefer the term "crony socialism..."
Maybe Draghi and Yellen were teased as children.
Otherwise why kill the golden goose? Oh, I forgot, wealth can be printed...so say my Progressive CA government buddies.
More like dropped on their heads a few times too often.
We are not talking about capitalism, not even neoliberalism. We are talking about the new global, brutal feudalism!
"Hyper-automatization: soldier-robots will protect worker-robots and resources."
That is the best case, short to medium term scenario, when one extrapolates the path we are on now ... However, that kind of technological civilization's NeoFeudalism would probably become a phase of its still overall mad, self-destruction due to a profoundly psychotic system: Globalized Garbage In / Garbage Out.
We bankrupted some folks
"Look no further. No new businesses (net). No new jobs (again net). No new wealth. Under Obama and Draghi, and Bush, Bernanke, Clinton, Greenspan, [insert 2016 President here], [insert any European politician here], crony capitalism flourishes. Real capitalism dies.
Capitalism was left behind when greed upgraded to theft.
"Capitalism was left behind when greed upgraded to theft."
NO! Capitalism morphed into CRONY CAPITALISM when Greed Upgraded to Government backed Capitalist Theft.
You know, its fine to mention Obama and Draghi, but "real capitalism" in the US started dying way before them. In some respects, you can date the problem back to the 80's.
You mean like in the 1880s, after silver was demonetized?
Capitalism is functioning as it always has, and we're reaching its enevitable conclusion.
How can this possibly be happening?
We've had over 4 decades of Congress passing laws, you know, improving things. I just don't get it.
Maybe once the effects of ObummerCare really kick in, then the real economic BOOM begins.
"ObummerCare"
Stop being a moron. "ObummerCare" is CORPORATE WELFARE DUMBASS!
"ObummerCare" was bought and paid for via $500,000,000 in "lobbying" money during the ACA's formation..."ObummerCare" pumps $100B+ into the "health industry" from here to infinity...that is CRONY CAPITALISM WELFARE...MORON!
I guess some DO need the 'sarc' tag.
You can easily see how the future "history" will frame all the evils of our current times on capitalism also. Capitalism will be framed as the great evil that brought the world to it's knees. Communism is just much easier for tyrants, capitalism even when corrupted, provides too many complications with the enginuity and motivations it stirs in people.
You didn't build that
"In the early 1970s, there were about 200,000 new US businesses created each year (net of closures). Now, the number is negative."
Simple
if someone sitting on $500K, and your choices are
1) invest in small business with high rate of failure
2) "guaranteed" annual double digit return in stock market
hhmm, what should i do ...
a 3rd option would be to put it to safety "offshore" with some shinny rocks :)
Lawyers...regulations..and taxes and fees...killed us
I see an Esso station in Draghi's future.
Kindof off topic but has anyone seen the news out of AZ? That renegade Sheriff had 800 illegals arrested for identity theft while at work. Federal judge says no go.... they basically have diplomatic immunity now.
I'd rather let 800 illegals go than let that meglomaniac psychopath sheriff Arpaio enforce the law his way. Seriously, fuck that old Judge Dredd wannabe motherfucker.
To whomever downvoted me, if you like your police state, you can keep your police state. Go through Arpaio's history.
With Janet Napalitano as Governor, and Joe Arpaio as Maricopa County Sheriff things became very bad in the Police State of Arizona rapidly.
The influx of the Illinois fascists whom have moved into the Sun City and Sun City West Area politically solidified that Police State as the politics went PROGRESSIVELY toward largesse and authoritarianism.
One of the first things that happened was the installation of Speed Trap Cameras which were installed upon the freeways. They used a private firm out of Austrailia to process the data and collect the fines.
Good luck attempting to fight it in court...
It became very bad very fast.
Fortunately the cameras were dismantled sometime after Obama appointed Napalitano to head the DHS.
Few understand the sordid state of Arizona. It is like living in hell. with psuedoconservatives, RINOs, whom have lost the understanding of the word conservative. They believe that conservatism equates to Government largesse with authoritarian rule. Then outsiders wonder why Sen. John McCain keeps retaining his Senate seat being one of the worst RINOs of the bunch?
Barry Goldwater would have been ashamed. He is probably rolling in his grave.
So go on and downarrow El Vaquero and downarrow me while you are at it.
YOU ARE FUCKING CLUELESS as you support FASCISM you fucking Illinois Nazis.
It appears as though people like a Sheriff who covers up beating deaths in the jails then promotes the guards who did it. But who gives a shit about things like due process and the 4th amendment anyway? Arpaio sure as hell doesn't. The dude is straight up Stasi, and people get their panties in a bunch because they don't like Mexicans and Arpaio's bid to round up a bunch of illegals failed when the cocksucker and others like him are a much bigger threat to YOUR civil liberties than several million illegals.
Yea well thats what happens when government/banking becomes a religion.
The business birth/death chart is wrong. Colour lines are twisted.
why are you such a racist filled with hate-speech?!?! Those are "pigment challenged non-circular conformist" lines
You are tons better off drawing unemployment, disability, or any other source of nanny income you can get. The government loads the card any you go your merry way.
Why would anybody in their right mind work like a dog with enthusiam and hope for the future when the rules to be in business at even the subsistance level makes it nearly mandatory to have at least an accountant and a lawyer.
Then, if you manage to do a little bit well, your hard earned savings to invest in your business are subject to the whims of whatever minor functionary that happens to cross your path.
What person smart enough to start a business would work under those conditions?
What really chaps me is what a liar Obama is.The man is a communist.Yet he denies it!
It's infuriating to see the president of the United States stand in front of a microphone and lie his ass off everyday,and the little baby goebbels that constitute what's left of the press here lap it up like pigs at a trough.
Who,in his right mind would start a business with this lying prick in charge?
The labels on the last chart should be reversed.
Sharp eyes Injun...
They seem to forget all of those like myself who really have no desire to be part of the system and do everything below board. I have several things I do to make money but have not opened any "official" business...
Hookers and Coke make the world go round
I also blame the Mega Millions/Powerball/State lottery expolsion that traps the uneducated blue collar sheeple into a permenant state of delusional statistically impossible get rich quick fantasies.
There's karmna attached though, these windfalls tend to ruin these people from the inside out...
It’s getting harder to find Americans who are willing to pay $2 for the
(remote) chance to win a couple hundred million bucks.
Powerball lottery ticket sales collapsed by some 40% in the second half of 2014 from the same period a year earlier in the 44 states, plus the District of Columbia, which participate in the sweepstakes.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/powerball-lottery-sales-plunge-a--jackpot-...
The income tax is what happened to us. The unconstituitonal, 'voluntary' income tax. The constitutions tied government and business, hip to hip. When business failed, so did government. The income tax severed that tie, and this is what we get.
What is capitalism? Two years. Get a banking charter. Capitalize with $1M. Loan out $10M for "two years" at 4% spread (leveraged it's 40%). At 40% money doubles in "two years". Take your $1M back. Leave the other $1M ride to do it again. Voila ... look mom, I'm a capitalist! Insist traders come to you, the capitalist, for "backing" of their trading promises. How much capital have you actually invested. A big fat zero!
Where did the $1M come from?
Where did the $10 M come from?
You're not a capitalist, you're a trust fund child.
"Where did the $1M come from?"
Does it matter? Is the first one to "save" $1M the only one who gets to be a capitalist?
"Where did the $10 M come from?"
Traders making trading promises. let's say in this instance it was 100 people like you and me promising to trade 360 monthly payments for a $100,000 house to live in today ... instead of 30 years from now. Of course, to qualify, our trade had to be blessed by this capitalist banker.
The point is, capitalism is an obvious con ... crony or otherwise.
Not to worry, when all of the welfare takers in that middle column of that table start to realize that their bennies no longer cover them for a full month, the remaining open businesses will wind up shuttering, and any remaining makers will jump ship or burn with the welfare addicts. It won't be pretty.
The retail computer sales business I started in 1978 that ran for 17 years could not be done in today’s government control freak environment. The choices that were open to me as a businessman back then have been shut down with the “everybody gets theirs upfront” attitude. The sacrifice that I and my employees made back then in the first three years, when the start up costs was the heaviest, cannot be done today.
In 1978 health and dental costs of the business were borne by spouses and parents in the first 3-4 years. The retail sales in that start-up period were not large enough when combined with tight margins to allow for those kinds of benefits. It was tough to just pay minimum wages in 1978. In slow periods I often did not get a pay check. Minimum wage levels of 15% back then would have killed the business; The business had no leverage in “moving computer prices” to pay for a “living wage”.
However, those employees that stuck with me and believed in me and my little business profited – big time. Once sales grew to a stable acceptable level I had regular paychecks, we all gained medical insurance, employee wages doubled, time off increased, sick days were added, we started medical/dental flexible spending accounts and at the end of the year I paid profit sharing. Any employer in their right mind is going to do this rather than risk losing people who make you profitable. This is how I got sales to peak at $2.5mill. And then all at once it was IBM personal computers, Sears selling computers cheaper than me and Dell reps selling to my customers. I lasted 9 more years before finally calling it a day. But that is the way business works.
But today I hear on the news and all over the internet “…employers are villains who steal from their employees…so big government must mandate how all employers run their businesses…” So I reply “…until this attitude changes the American dream is dead… “
They'll send machines to kill us. More loot for them and fewer hassles.
This is a great article about the death of America, Freedom, and the Free Market.
Its "WE THE MUTHA FUCKIN PEOPLE" vs. THE US FEDERAL GOVT/WALL STREET ARISTOCRACY
Far too optimistic I'm afraid. Based on the experience of, ahem, distant acquaintences, every new "business" spawns multiple, occasionally numerous, business entities and it's the latter being counted.
Consider: A approaches B with what A believes to be a market opportunity. B concurs and forms entity #1 which extends a revolving line of credit to A's newly formed entity #2. #2 prospers by entering into an informal agreement to service pre-existing #3 exclusively. A wishes to expand rapidly, B recognizes the high liability inherent in #2 and forms #4 to hold an equity stake in newly formed #5 (a conversion of #2 to a form governed by more stable and predictable laws). Recognizing a possibility for cost saving vertical integration but additional potential liabilities, A and #4 form #6 to service primarily #5 but also, occasionally, third parties. A wishes to expand rapidly, C forms #7 to hold an equity stakes in #5 & #6. D, owner of #3 wishes #5 to expand rapidly but fears liability and so forms #8 to hold an equity stake in #5. E approaches A and offers to buy #5 & #6, B, C & D concur and E forms #9 to receive the assets of #5 & #6. A, B, C & D form #10 to receive the assets of #5 & #6 and transfer them to #9. #9 and #3 continue, #1 and #4 - 8 are retained as shelf corporations. #10 is wound down.
Q: How many new "businesses" were actually formed?
“crony capitalism flourishes. Real capitalism dies.”
Ah, yes: and by “crony capitalism” I think we mean rule by thieves and cutthroats.
It really doesn’t matter: “crony” or “thieves and cutthroats.” The result will be the same: utter destruction of civilized society.
Yes, I’d say we have a problem. A very large fraction of Americans can be classified into either of these categories; and the main thing you need to know about them is that they will die, or kill, rather than correct their self-destructive habits. These people control instruments of power across the globe; as far as they are concerned, if destruction of civilized society is necessary to secure rule by thieves, it shall be done.
And the problem, from our perspective, is, ‘How do we protect ourselves from their murderous political system?’ How, for example, do we protect our property (from physical gold, to businesses, to stocks and bonds (domestic and foreign)) from false allegations provided and protected by the act of Congress that established the DHS? This could be a problem with all existing forums of redress controlled by criminal and useless classes – a major problem.
That's stupid.
Taking purchasing power from one group and giving it to another increases total purchasing power!
Duhhhhhhh...
No umma go break ma windows for tha good of tha 'comony
Napoleon, quoting Adam Smith
Adam Smith
And when the government of an Empire/nation begins to destroy the customer base of its shopkeepers (retailers and manufacturers as well), that Empire/nation thereby begins its economic decline into neo feudalism -- with a temporary sojourn in crony capitalism -- (21st century speak for the18th century expression, "a nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers.")