'The war between financial theocracy and democracy'

[inna]

The money power preys upon the nation in times of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its REIGN by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.

-President Abraham Lincoln after the National Banking Act of 1863 was passed

Fitting and timely quote, isn't it?



Here's a few excerpts from Les Leopold http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/author/lesleopold/ , the author of "The Looting of America: How Wall Street's Game of Fantasy Finance destroyed our Jobs, Pensions and Prosperity, and What We Can Do About It"...

Our outsized financial sector is a clear and present danger to all of us. This gigantic bubble, which bankers and politicians have been pumping up for the past 30 years, now casts a dark shadow over our economy and our political system.

Nothing’s Really Been Fixed — 5 Ways the Financial Insanity Will Continue
http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/05/15/help-whats-the-cure-for-financial-insanity/

Now that the bank lobbyists are nearly finished neutering the financial reform bill, it’s time to face reality: our financial world will continue to be run by the very financiers who crashed the system two years ago.
...
It all goes back to that most glaring symptom and cause of our psychosis: our insane maldistribution of income, which gets worse and worse every year. The richest 1 percent of Americans now earn more than the bottom 50 percent. Back in 1973, the richest 1 percent of earners collected 8 percent of the national income.
...
The ultimate insanity of our current moment is that the richest investors and the largest bankers in the world just crashed our system, got bailed out by taxpayers, grew even larger, and now are back to earning record profits and bonuses. They caused the biggest jobs crisis since the Great Depression and drove the entire global economy into a ditch–and they could do it again any minute. And now they’re telling us to tighten our belts and act more responsibly?

...The financial industry bubble started expanding during the 1970s with the push for deregulation. It grew even faster in the 1980s after Reagan and Congress dramatically cut taxes on the super-rich. ... Since the era of deregulation took hold in the late 1970s, the world has suffered over a hundred financial crises and middle-class incomes have stagnated.

The Deregulatory Counter-Offensive: By the late 1970s, bankers regained the advantage through the spread of a new faith in self-regulated markets. The economic apostles of unfettered markets lobbied against progressive taxes, unions, and social welfare programs. The new orthodoxy was: Let the elites collect the money – they’ll invest wisely (instead of consuming), and all boats will rise. This near-religious revolution rapidly spread through the economic and policy establishment. Regulations were dismantled right and left, and the revolving door between government and Wall Street started spinning. The American financial catechism ruled the world. And on Wall Street, the money tap was open. It did not trickle down.

Then, suddenly, in 2008, the market gods destroyed themselves as the unregulated financial casinos crashed and burned, just like they did in 1929. For a few months, it seemed like the deregulatory theology become a global heresy. It was obvious that Wall Street’s reckless speculation and its bold new wave of financial engineering had caused the Great Recession. It was also clear that if government didn’t come to the rescue, Wall Street would lay in ruins, along with the rest of the economy. This was the perfect moment for democracy reassert democratic control on financial markets, just as we did during the New Deal. We blew it.

The Victory at Too Big to Fail: At the moment when Wall Street was on its knees, we decided to bypass serious reform. Instead, we rebuilt Wall Street, using taxpayer money and guarantees – more than $10 trillion worth. We let bankers use our bailout money to pay themselves $150 billion in bonuses — at a moment when over 29 million Americans were jobless or forced into part-time jobs. We allowed the top hedge fund managers to walk off with over $900,000 an hour (not a typo) in 2009. Windfall profits taxes? No. In fact we let hedge fund honchos pay an extra-low tax rate by calling their income “capital gains.” We didn’t restore Glass-Steagall, we didn’t break up “too big to fail” financial institutions. In fact the biggest banks became even bigger, courtesy of the U.S. government.

The Invasion against Democracy: The war is escalating. Right now, financial elites aren’t just fighting a defensive battle against new regulations. They’re playing offense: They’re whipping up deficit hysteria around the globe and calling for drastic cuts in middle class programs. Why? They want to ensure that their loans to governments aren’t threatened by rising public debt. Ironically, the public debt they’re so worried about was created in large part by them — the result of huge bailouts and other expenses stemming from the crash they caused. Although the bankers want us to dismantle what remains of our worker-oriented policies, welfare for the financial elites is still fine and dandy.

This is the most dangerous counter attack in the history of finance.
...
They’ve been roaming free and virtually unregulated for more than a generation, and now their power is unparalleled. Just months after they brought our economy crashing down, they’re right back to their old tricks, setting the stage for the next crash and the next bailout while getting filthy rich along the way.
...
No Retreat, No Surrender? There’s no room for pacifists in this war. Clearly, Wall Street and its global minions are not seeking a truce. Instead, they’re coming after our Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs. They want us to work longer before we retire and get less when we do. They want us to pay more for health care and get less of it. They want less public money to go to schools, teachers and public infrastructures. And they want us to get used to a jobless recovery with double digit unemployment rates. (And when millions and millions of people are unemployed, we can’t maintain high labor standards, and our wages and benefits erode.) In short, they want to undermine all the policies and programs that have built and sustained middle class life.
Already government officials in the UK, Germany and here are telling us we must endure austerity for “decades to come.” ...
more: http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/06/12/is-there-a-global-war-between-financial-theocracy-and-democracy/

[Odin2005]

1. K&R

[inna]

2. +

Also:


The Financial Oligarchy Reigns: Democracy’s Death Spiral From Greece to the United States:

http://ampedstatus.com/the-financial-oligarchy-reigns-democracys-death-spiral-from-greece-to-the-united-states



The Economic Elite Vs. The People of the United States of America:

http://ampedstatus.com/full-report-the-economic-elite-vs-the-people-of-the-united-states-of-america

[amborin]

3. K&R thanks for posting!

[laughingliberal]

4. Lincoln had it right way back then. Too bad we have few leaders today who will fight this. nt

[jberryhill]

5. Fitting, Timely...... and FALSE

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/lincoln.asp

[inna]

6. Ah. Interesting, thanks. At least this other classic one is real (they confirmed):

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."