Two Recommended Books Explore The Damage Capitalism Causes

 

 As the rich get richer, the middle class fades, and the poor are ruthlessly demonized by the rich, America is becoming that most evil of capitalist states—a place where a few uber-rich feast at the table while the rest of us struggle for scraps. In such a state, the elite few who possess nearly everything can purchase most anything, including the government and the media. Consequently the state is run for the benefit of the wealthy few at the expense of the many. Sociopaths in positions of power in the corporate and political worlds partner to form a sinister alliance. Privatization of all functions of government and deregulation of business practices become the rallying cries. As Mussolini declared, “Fascism should rightly be called coporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power.”

Republicans and their billionaire donors are trying mightily to make America this kind of state today. In this model, capitalism becomes more than free enterprise; it is the iron wall separating the ultra wealthy from the rest of us. It is the means by which stark income inequality can become permanent.

Two books I recommend reinforce this notion. Thomas Piketty’s “Capitalism In The Twenty-First Century” uses economic numbers to make an scientific case for the destructiveness of the current version of American capitalism. The means and opportunities by which the common person can access middle class status are being cut off, intentionally and rigorously, by the 1% who control 55-60% of all the wealth of the country. And this “socioeconomic gulf” is widening.

Likewise, Naomi Klein’s book Disaster Capitalism warns of the evils of capitalism in the 21st century. She argues that deregulation has been extremely profitable for those at the top but something of a disaster for those at the bottom.

No surprise there, but Klein does imply that there is more than simple economics at work. Governments in league with corporations around the globe have employed something called the “shock system.” This system uses crises or calamities to pass laws that implement destructive capitalist policies. She cites examples from Asia, Latin America, and Russia, but the same could be said for our own 9/11 catastrophe that led to the unwarranted invasion of Iraq. The greed and corruption that followed was unprecedented. War profiteers and contractors got rich, and the commoner was left to ponder how his pockets got picked. Same with the Wall Street meltdown and bailout in 2008. It nearly destroyed our economy, but in the end the taxpayer funded billionaires who put another one over on us.

Klein is quoted in the latest edition of OpEd News as saying, “If we want to understand how this system has swept the globe from Latin America to Russia to this country, we need to understand the incredible ‘utility of crisis’ to this project, because the great leaps forward for this project have taken place in the midst of and during the immediate aftermath of some kind of a shock. The extreme cases that I discuss in the book are wars, terrorist attacks, natural disasters…the most common shocks that have created the context for pushing through these very unpopular policies in a way that economists often call economic shock therapy. The first shock is the economic crisis; the second shock is the economic shock therapy.”

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-presidents-mortician-tim-fleming/1117253323?ean=97800988829077

JFK Conspiracy Fact #44: 9/11 Profiteers Linked To JFK Murder

In the days leading up to 9/11 there was suspicious trading activity taking place in American stock markets.  Unusually high numbers of put options were purchased on the two airlines–American and United–whose jets were highjacked by the terrorists.  A put option is a bet that a stock’s value will fall in the near future.  It is a very risky bet, and one that is normally not made in any significant volumes.  But apparently someone had foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks because 1,535 put options were purchased on American Airlines on Sept. 10, 2001, 64 times more put options than were normally purchased on an average day.  A similar anomaly occurred with United Airlines stock just before 9/11.

Likewise, purchases of stocks which provided security for airlines and airports rose dramatically before 9/11.  One such purchase of 56,000 shares of a company called Stratosec was made by Wirt Walker III, a cousin of then sitting president George W. Bush.  Stratosec was one of the companies that provided security at the World Trade Center and Dulles Airport.  Highjacked American Airlines Flight 77 took off from Dulles Airport.  Stratosec also provided security for United Airlines which owned two highjacked planes.  After 9/11 Stratosec’s share price doubled, and pre-9/11 investors made a small fortune.

Instead of investigating the suspicious trading, the SEC and the FBI quietly dropped the sensitive matter.  The head of the FBI at the time was Robert Mueller III.  He had been appointed FBI Director by President Bush just four days prior to 9/11.  And, oh by the way, Mueller is the nephew of Richard Bissell, Deputy Director of the CIA under JFK.  Mueller’s wife is the granddaughter of Charles Cabell, also ex-CIA under JFK.  After the Bay of Pigs fiasco in 1961, JFK fired Bissell, Cabell and Allen Dulles.  The Bush family had close business and personal ties to all these men.  George W. Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush, swore he would never forgive JFK for firing Dulles.  Bissell, Dulles, and Cabell had direct links to many of the suspects in the conspiracy to assassinate JFK.  Read more at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/ASIN/098882907X.