
This is an economic fight, but this is also a political fight. The biggest financial institutions aren’t just big – they wield enormous political power. Last December, Citibank lobbyists wrote an amendment to Dodd-Frank and persuaded their friends in Washington to attach it to a bill that had to pass or the government would have been shut down. And when there was pushback over the amendment, the CEO of JPMorgan, Jamie Dimon, personally got on the phone with Members of Congress to secure their votes. How many individuals who are looking for a mortgage or a credit card could make that call? How many small banks could have their lobbyists write an amendment and threaten to shut down the US government if they didn’t get it? None. Keep in mind that the big banks aren’t trying to make the market more competitive; they just want rules that create more advantages for themselves. The system is rigged and those who rigged it want to keep it that way.
– From Senator Elizabeth Warren’s excellent speech: “The Unfinished Business of Financial Reform”
This is probably one of the most important posts I’ll write all year. The reason is because in order to displace the current paradigm, the public needs to deeply and intellectually understand exactly where the real cancer resides.
I never liked the saying: “We are the 99%.” While admittedly catchy and effective as a slogan, I think it is ultimately divisive and counterproductive. The reason I say this is because the statement itself alienates much needed allies for no good reason.
In a country with a population of 320 million, the 1% represents 3.2 million people, which is a pretty big number. While the 1% certainly have far superior material lives compared to the 99%, that doesn’t mean a particularly large percentage of them are thieves, cronies or oligarchs. In fact, it behooves people interested in transitioning to another paradigm to court as many of them as possible to the cause. It is very useful to have well meaning people with resources and connections on your side. To blithely assume there aren’t plenty of potential allies from a pool of 3.2 million is committing strategic suicide. Indeed, John Hancock came from one of the wealthiest families in the American colonies in the run up to the Revolution, yet he isn’t remembered by history for his family’s tremendous wealth, but for his signature:

The moment you proudly espouse, “I am the 99%,” you are being tribal and open yourself up to irrational thought. You are essentially saying 3.2 million of your countrymen and women are in some way the enemy merely because of their income. You are lumping a lot of very decent — albeit wealthy — people inappropriately into the oligarch bucket. While many of them are indeed oligarch wannabes or their well paid henchmen, many of them are not. You create a barrier between yourselves and them. This works to make many of the 1% reflexively align with each other when they should be aligning with you. It’s a pretty stupid strategy to alienate millions of people you know nothing about.
The root of the problem is the oligarchy, run by, well, oligarchs. Here is how I defined the term in the post: Inside the Mind of an Oligarch – Sheldon Adelson Proclaims “I Don’t Like Journalism.”
In a nutshell, while many oligarchs are extremely wealthy (or have access to extreme wealth), not all people with extreme wealth are oligarchs. The term oligarch is reserved for those with extreme wealth who also want to control the political process, policy levers and most other aspects of the lives of the citizenry in a top-down tyrannical and undemocratic manner. They think they know best about pretty much everything, and believe unelected technocrats who share their worldview should be empowered so that they can unilaterally make all of society’s important decisions. The unwashed masses (plebs) in their minds are unnecessary distractions who must to be told what to do. Useless eaters who need to be brainwashed into worshipping the oligarch mindset, or turned into apathetic automatons incapable or unwilling to engage in critical thought. Either outcome is equally acceptable and equally encouraged.
So oligarchs are the problem, but there aren’t 3.2 million of them. In case you missed it the first time around, I discussed this in the post, Where Does the Real Problem Reside? Two Charts Showing the 0.01% vs. the 1%. In that piece, I highlighted the following chart, which showed how the 1% has more or less been treading water while the wealth of the 0.01% has exploded in recent years:

While that chart is disturbing in its own right, over the weekend, I came across another one that simply blew me away. It was from Palo Alto based political data compiling company CrowdPac, and it showed the percentage of political contributions emanating from the 0.01% of income earners. Here is what it showed:
You’ll notice a couple of trends from the chart above, but one that is crystal clear is that although the trend has been higher for decades, it hit escape velocity since the bailouts (and the Citizens United decision). These two things resulted in an increased concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the oligarchy (the bailouts), and provided an avenue for this wealth and power to be wielded (Citizens United). The bailouts did very little to help the American economy, but served as a mind-boggling windfall for the plutocracy.
There are roughly 250 million adults in America, so 0.01% of that is about 25,000 people. I would argue even this number is too high. In fact, I want to find out information about what percentage of political contributions come from the 0.001%. That number will probably get us much closer to the root of the problem. It is far more possible and efficient to closely monitor 2,500 people as opposed to 25,000. After all, 25,000 people don’t regularly call Congress and get the specific legislation they want passed. 25,000 people don’t have a direct line to the Federal Reserve, but people like Jamie Dimon do, and it is these people we must watch like hawks. If we can zero in on the 2,500 wealthiest people, we can also efficiently pick out the worst offenders, as opposed to just demonizing people based on wealth, even within the 0.001%. You can’t easily separate the good from the bad with a sample of 25,000 people, but you can with 2,500 (and that smaller group has much more pull anyway).
Far fewer people are calling the shots in America than you could ever imagine, and we must zero in with laser like precision on them, as opposed to alienating 3.2 million people. A more accurate slogan would be: “We are not the Oligarchy.”
* * *
For related articles, see:
Portrait of the American Oligarchy – The Very Troubling Income and Wealth Trends Since 1989
When Asked if the U.S. is a Capitalist Democracy or Oligarchy, Janet Yellen Can’t Answer…
New Report from Princeton and Northwestern Proves It: The U.S. is an Oligarchy



Arrest the foreign "dual citizen" usurpers.
This Liberty Blitzkrieg Bozo seems to think that white bread communist Elizabeth Warren is the solution to our problem.
Obedience is serfdom.
Complaining is a waste of energy.
I would vote for a Rand/Warren ticket in 2016
Anyone supporting Warren needs to be in a mental institution with her.
Gee-if I'm Monsanto I'm very happy with more and more articles blaming it all on "indiividuals"
http://www.globalresearch.ca/monsanto-controls-both-the-white-house-and-...
even the individuals are tools of all the giant corproate octopi out there. Take out the individuals-SUPRISE-nothing changes!!
They will play a game of "look overthere" all day long
ROFL! Perfect WB7.
Need permission to print that out and hand it out at the polls please. Unedited, just exactly the way it is.
OK, kids, time for one of NoDebt's quick lessons on "how shit really works":
The 20th centrury was an anomaly, not the norm. Low cost energy and the US winning WWII without having it's productive resources bombed flat gave birth to the greatest middle class any society has ever seen. Anywhere. Since the dawn of time.
The elites damned near lost control. It's taken them decades to rein it all back in to the point where things usually balance out. (As a review, that point is: A small number of rich, large number of poor and just enough middle class to service the rich, as it has been in most societies throughout most of human history).
Imagine MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of people who make up their own mind what they want to do AND HAVE THE RESOURCES TO FOLLOW THROUGH ON THOSE DECISIONS. For the elites, it's a complete fucking disaster. These are not people they could easily control. And they will NEVER make that mistake again. EVER.
ND, it has always been a gentle balance between letting the reins loose a little bit, so that technology could develop, and to tighten 'em right back, so that people don't get funny ideas like freedom and liberty. They are the larger movments, of which Kondratieff waves are subsets. They had to let 'em really loose for the industrial age and for computer technology. You can't build all this shit we have today, as a result of people who think they have 'free will,' without the exponentiation and redundancy that comes along with it. Hence where we're at. They will tighten the reins once again, but have no doubt, that they will be loosened again. Mental dispositions and fortitudes of the enslaved may vary.
The reins are never let loose on purpose.
That energy thing is going to be real important going forward now that we created the Chinese industrial (and soon to be miltary) juggernaut and let Nuland weld it to the nuclear arms and gas reserves of Russia.
If we must suffer neocons and neolibs... I just wish they would be competent ones.
The hell with this hockey stick fuckball chart horseshit. I wanna know who is bleeding and why and why aren't people who should be bleeding not? Fuck this fuckstick chart shit. Queer as a football bat. Pericles had it right 2,500 years ago and we've regressed beyond him. There are no heroes, only people.
Toots and the Maytals weren't far off either:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXhP3i81umU
out.
And if that didn't do it...the "Pressure Drop" just might....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rb13ksYO0s
They are scared shitless of us.
Prove it.
Jade Helm. They can't rest until the US is disarmed.
Sounds more like consolidating their power to me. Who's pushing back on this? Nobody.
Look, I'm not trying to say that you're wrong. Yes, the elites telegraph their fears in the actions they take. No doubt. Every action they take speak volumes of their deepest terror (losing control). What I'm pointing out is that they are not in any way afraid of losing control right now or in the near future. NOBODY is pushing back currently. So they keep going. Adding to their control. And they will keep going until somebody stops them. So far, nobody has.
They are scared shitless of us.
Let them march all they want, so long as they continue to pay their taxes.
– Alexander Haig
On the contrary, everything's going according to plan. The class war was their idea, and they're winning.
Thanks to the bomb, if the game really turns against them, they can knock the board over at any time.
"The class war was their idea, and they're winning."
So they are Marxists?
those maggots are getting so old it is quite humorous
i pooped my pants [/ike, kyle's little brother]
What I find disturbing is that people are swayed by campaign cash. Who spends the most, wins.
Are people really that stupid? I guess they are. If so, this country deserves to go down. Idiocracy.
The TV will tell you who to vote for. The talking heads on your poison of choice, err I mean network, will tell you everything you need to know so you can make an informed vote.
What they don;t tell you is stuff like this and why .01% of the people control the government in this 'checkbook republic' (hat tip George Ure of urbansurvival.com)
He who writes the biggest checks has the most power.
But the stupids keep voting, because this time it will be different. And most females, victim groups, and SJWs, as well as the FSA, will be voting for the ultimate victim of the patriarchy, Hillarity Clinton that martyr and hero of all things good.
Meanwhile the other half of the stupids (slightly less than half) will be voting against gays, and for a Christian America! FUCK YEAH.
plus ça change, plus c'est la même choseAll the same, we take our chances...
You could be the wealthiest person in the world, and not have a single problem. Then, out of boredom you create one for yourself.
So why is Adelson used as the example of the evil oligarch? He's one of the very few who uses his wealth for good---for the preservation of the Jewish nation, for example.
And he has a point. There's no mention of democracy in the Bible. Plenty about God's law which no human may overrule, though---and about the woe that befalls any vain enough to try.
Plenty too about how it's Israel's duty to exterminate the Amalekites, from whom today's Arabs, "Palestinian" or otherwise, are descended---and the woe that befell Israel when they showed Amalek mercy. Till the Arabs are culled from the gene pool neither Israel nor the Middle East will ever be at peace.
I digress.
The members of the 0.01 percent who have any god but money or are loyal to anyone but themselves probably number in the low double digits, at most. Sheldon's one of the good guys. Be afraid rather of those who dream of that happy day when robots can do all the real work, and they can exterminate any human beings who still pose a threat to their rule and replace them with a proletariat more to their taste which they can rule over as gods forever.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinians#DNA_and_genetic_studies
And your point?
No one has said there are genetic differences between the Jewish people and Arabs. They have often inter married for hundreds of years.
They have a dramatic religious difference which has nothing to do with genetics.
Every bill presented to/by Congress should have to stand on it's own. If it needs to be buried in other "must have" legislation, that should be the first clue that it is BAD for America; which by the way has become the biggest WHORE of all nations ever created.......
Welcome to the New Rome, the Kleptoligarchy!
It's an amalgamation of all the 'ism's - the worst of all of them.
GOP=DEM=INC
Nothing changes until K Street burns.
Enough political pandering
Kill the Fed and fiat money - and the entire source of political, economic and social corruption disappears.
Elizabeth Warren would NEVER promote that though - because the Federal Reserve is the foundation of the progressive state. Socialism in American can't exist without it.
Get real,
Warren is progressive as is any politician.
THE POINT OF PROGRESSIVES IS THAT THE POWER IS WITH THE STATE (OR POLITICIANS). Government is the solution to them. You don't hear Warren talking about going back to a Constitutional government, do you?
At this point I don't even trust Paul or Cruz because once they get elected, they seem to change their positions and make excuses for it.
I think that's a H&S forming on the "Escape Velocity" chart. Buy silver.
Let me help Janet. The U.S. is -- or at least was founded as -- a constitutional republic. The word "democracy" is not in the U.S. Constitution.
"Democracy" is two foxes and a sheep voting for what's for lunch.
Electoral democracy is government by the stupidist, most narcissistic, most easily manipulated 51 percent of the population.
As H. L. Mencken explained: "Democracy is the theory that the people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard."
Capitalism creates wealth. Some capitalists create more wealth than others. Some capitalists end up having more wealth than others.
Capitalists trade their wealth with other capitalists to gain mutual benefit.
Capitalists who are more successful at identifying beneficial trading partners have more influence then people who raise their hands when a politician asks them if they want something free from the government.
.01%, aka Jews for Israel.
Take a look at the chart, when did the .01% incomes take off to the stratosphere? When St. Ronnie fuckin Reagan was elected. The biggest sham ever foisted on this country!
Most incomes rose in that time period. And one should expect in ALL times that the ones that the top will do better then those below in any time period.
No doubt the super-duper rich have more influence on predators-DBA-government. However, the very existence of "limited liability fictitious entities" (namely, "corporations") is inherent an direct THEFT. Why? Because they know they can cause any quantity and quality of damage and destruction, while also knowing they can only suffer limited quantity and quality of liability for that destruction.
This is precisely like being able to bet $1000 on red in Vegas while knowing you can only lose $100. That is a winning proposition, and everyone else who does NOT have that "limited liability" pays for those who do.
This is inherent travesty that runs deep.
The entire system is so utterly corrupt at every level, that all minor and modest changes have zero chance of any measurable benefit.
The entire system must go... or the species will.
And so, humans are finished, because the predators will not give up their arbitrary, unjustified advantages. The only hope is to end recognition of all fictitious entities, and that includes "government" as well as "corporation".
Eliminating corporations and the laws that protect them during a constitutional convention would be a great start. Enforce contracts with full liability. The FED cartel would be toast.
As a side note, eliminate government pensions and government unions during that convention. It would disrupt the entire entrenched power structure that keeps us stuck in this quagmire.
Tax slave auction.
Lotto perhaps.
The oligrachs let people become proficient and hardy when it was needful for them to compete with foreign oligarch powers. Now that robotics seems to offer an alternative to a large, well educated and healthy workforce and all foreign enemies have become oligarch's partners in the interest of 'world peace', they now think that they can show their true colors and suppress the masses.
There are limits to what people will endure and every system of smoke, mirrors and shadows eventually collapses.
People can find happiness by simply bearing in mind that our knigdom is not of this world. We will win by having more children, teaching them how to survive and thrive in a hostile environment and how to evade the governments monitoring.
Eventually when the oligarchs have fallen into fighting each other again, they will come to us for their needed edge once again.
Five giant holes in the "Political donations are ruining government" conspiracy theory:
1. Uncontrolled political donations worked fine for 200 years in the US. Government was healthier and more honest prior to 1970. Even more so prior to the 1920s, when the federal government began vote buying the populace - under Republican Warren Harding.
2. Politicians buying citizens' votes is 100,000 times worse than corporate vote buying, measured by the amount of money transferred: The ratio of vote buying .vs. corporate donations is 100,000 to 1. go look it up. It's 10,000:1 best case. There was around $6B of campaign contributions (documented!) in the last election. Voter benefits are $2 trillion a year - and votes are corresponding aligned between the vote buying party and their benefits-addled constituents.
3. There is no history of countries getting unhealthy due to campaign contributions.
4. There is plenty of history of countries getting unhealthy due to voter bribing: They all end in oligarchy, communism, corruption, widespread poverty, or massive banking fraud.
5. America's strongest consumer protection law was passed in the age of a growing Corporate America: The Sherman Act. It outlawed cartel pricing but is now routinely abused by Obamacare, which was created by.....you guessed it....the anti-corporation party. Which is the same party that didn't prosecute the corrupt banks. See the pattern? Voters' whims of that party become pro-corporate and anti-consumer if THEY GET REWARDED DIRECTLY. Voter purchasing dominate policy decisions - corporations are coerced to align with socialism - or they simply go out of business. They don't get in "the game".
The model of vote buying being the key corruption issue in America explains all of our unhealthy decay in governance, and is in harmony with historical patterns of decay.
Can you site a case where corporate influence went COMPLETELY against popular liberal sentiments - pushed the citizens broad whims aside? If corporate donations dominate, we should see a series of corporate wins/citizen losses, but every time I see an alleged "corporate influence" win like Obamacare and not prosecuting the banks - there was a huge benefits windfall that was mixed into the alleged "pro-corporate" policy - benefits and bailouts that lined the liberal voters' pockets.
We are witnessed a standard failure exhibit of democracy - not political donations.
Socialism always ends like this: Oligarchy, fiscal decadence, rights violations, destruction of the middle class, corruption.
Correct.
btw Eliz Warren and hubby are multi millionaires too so don't fall for her populist bullshit.
Best Return On Investment by far is the dollar invested on a politician
No need to look for dark motives, businessmen will invest where the payoff is the best
Bread and circus go a long way in making sure the sheeple are distracted.
Worked 6000 years ago. Works today.