Reminds me of a speech then–FBI director Robert Mueller gave in New York in 2011, warning about a new kind of national security threat: “so-called ‘iron triangles’ of organized criminals, corrupt government officials, and business leaders” allied not by religion or political inclinations, but by greed.
Or how about National Republican Senatorial Committee chair Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to campaign finance reform in 1997 after he raised a record-breaking amount of money for Republican candidates, saying that political donations are simply a form of free speech. The Supreme Court read that interpretation into law in the 2010 Citizens United decision, but the increasingly obvious links between money, politics, and national security suggest it might be worth revisiting.
Freedom to succeed is also freedom to fail. There should be penalties for failure--even if you are a banker. Jail would seem appropriate. In the current circumstances, if you are big and important enough, the government will bail you out and make you whole. But the small homeowner or small businessman is simply allowed to be pauperized. Socialism for the rich, capitalism for everyone else? The next demagogue may be brighter than tRump and bring democracy down. Reform is imperative, and we shall see what Biden can do.
My husband and I were one of those underwater homeowners the banks, Obama and Congress failed to help in 2009. We lost everything, everything. It’s why 24 years later in my early 70s we live month-to-month on my pension and social security and are still working …. and I can’t afford your newsletter!
This is not a woe-is-me. We’re happy living in a cozy miner’s cabin at 4300 feet on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. But I know my “retirement “ would be more rosy if it weren’t for the demagogues and demons of American capitalism.
And I wouldn’t be up at 3 a.m. worrying about how we’re going to pay for four new snow tires on our 1998 Merc and reading your newsletter!
Thanks, Robert, as always for another insightful history lesson of how rigged the system is.
When will a middle-of-road politician emerge who can lead us out of this morass?
This is so gross. For this situation to continue without correcting it would be a travesty. How terribly greedy and selfish the people running these banks are. Is this what a capitalistic system is? Is all we think about money and power and that's it? Why do we have to be so adversarial? Human nature?
Are we totally sold on that or do we have the ability to change how we think about ourselves and humanity?
Yes, it's socialism, Mr. Dimon. But it's socialism for the banks and penury for the rest of us. Now, speaking of raking, where did I leave that pitchfork?
The rich are being allowed to loot and pillage our country by a government turned over to the rich by the Buckley v Valeo decision of 1976. According to Elizabeth Warren, Fed chair Jerome Powell tailored regulation to what the banks wanted rather than what was needed. He's the one raising interest rates to stop inflation, as Dr. Reich has mentioned. Timothy Geithner was reluctant to regulate and Mr. Obama supported Geithner. This is very distressing against a backdrop of repeated tax cuts that go to stock buybacks rather than worker pay increases or investing in plant and facilities. Also distressing considering SVB execs sold their stocks before their bank crashed - shades of Enron. This looks like class warfare to me. Lewis Powell must be smiling, not spinning, in his grave. Not smiling - grinning from ear to ear.
"American capitalism needs strict guardrails. Otherwise, it is subject to periodic crises that summon bailouts. The result is socialism for the rich."
Yes, funny how that works, isn't it? Turns out Dimon either didn't read, or didn't understand, Wealth of Nations when it was taught at Harvard Business School in 1980. Or could it be that that school was even then in the thrall of Supply Side Economics?
Capitalism was never intended to be "free," it was always the MARKET that had to be free, which means that it was the CAPITALIST who had to be restrained, in order to prevent "collusion against the public interest." The main constraints were intended to be very high tax rates and the break-up of monopolies (e.g., no "Too big to fail," on the contrary).
Tax...the...Rich, and tax 'em again. Bring back Glass-Steagall.
Medicare for all, free higher education and paid sick leave requirements are not socialism. They are capital investments in people. Our society would be the beneficiary of people who are healthier and better educated. Even the banking system would benefit. The big bank executives cannot think far enough ahead.
The chaos that has fractured this country can be attributed to a constellation of problems, but one of the greatest is not holding wealthy criminals accountable.
Not only are these criminals not held to account, but as you illustrate with Jamie Dimon, they take advantage of chaos, and thrive.
Time after time, the federal government doesn't bat an eye when handling out taxpayer money to corporate bad actors, or increasing the Pentagon budget to more obscene amounts, but support for the most vulnerable in our society is but a distant afterthought.
For such a wealthy country, we certainly aren't thriving in action or thought.
With bank titan and narcissistic sociopath Jamie Dimon "warning against socialism" for The People, ie; Universal Healthcare, free college and basically anything AOC or Bernie say The People need right now, I really have to ask who is running OUR government?!
I am totally bewildered how any American still thinks that either Obama or Biden are so progressive that they become FDR. Nothing will get better in our lives until we acknowledge how captured by corporations, by greedy sociopaths like Dimon, our Democratic politicians have become.
How IS this possible in the "land of the free, home of the brave" wtf ....is there any possibility that we've been drinking the corporate cool-aid for 247 years????
I hope, Robert, that you don’t call socialism “snake oil.” It’s looking better than ever. Take a gander at the good things AOC and Bernie Sanders are advocating for. Jamie Dimon denounces them as he gets obscenely rich. That’s capitalism for you. Is socialism oppressive? Nah!
Reminds me of a speech then–FBI director Robert Mueller gave in New York in 2011, warning about a new kind of national security threat: “so-called ‘iron triangles’ of organized criminals, corrupt government officials, and business leaders” allied not by religion or political inclinations, but by greed.
Or how about National Republican Senatorial Committee chair Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to campaign finance reform in 1997 after he raised a record-breaking amount of money for Republican candidates, saying that political donations are simply a form of free speech. The Supreme Court read that interpretation into law in the 2010 Citizens United decision, but the increasingly obvious links between money, politics, and national security suggest it might be worth revisiting.
From Heather Cox Richardson
Thank you for explaining all this, information most of us do not have. It seems there are no consequences for the really wicked these days.
Freedom to succeed is also freedom to fail. There should be penalties for failure--even if you are a banker. Jail would seem appropriate. In the current circumstances, if you are big and important enough, the government will bail you out and make you whole. But the small homeowner or small businessman is simply allowed to be pauperized. Socialism for the rich, capitalism for everyone else? The next demagogue may be brighter than tRump and bring democracy down. Reform is imperative, and we shall see what Biden can do.
My husband and I were one of those underwater homeowners the banks, Obama and Congress failed to help in 2009. We lost everything, everything. It’s why 24 years later in my early 70s we live month-to-month on my pension and social security and are still working …. and I can’t afford your newsletter!
This is not a woe-is-me. We’re happy living in a cozy miner’s cabin at 4300 feet on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. But I know my “retirement “ would be more rosy if it weren’t for the demagogues and demons of American capitalism.
And I wouldn’t be up at 3 a.m. worrying about how we’re going to pay for four new snow tires on our 1998 Merc and reading your newsletter!
Thanks, Robert, as always for another insightful history lesson of how rigged the system is.
When will a middle-of-road politician emerge who can lead us out of this morass?
She must be out there somewhere.
This is so gross. For this situation to continue without correcting it would be a travesty. How terribly greedy and selfish the people running these banks are. Is this what a capitalistic system is? Is all we think about money and power and that's it? Why do we have to be so adversarial? Human nature?
Are we totally sold on that or do we have the ability to change how we think about ourselves and humanity?
Yes, it's socialism, Mr. Dimon. But it's socialism for the banks and penury for the rest of us. Now, speaking of raking, where did I leave that pitchfork?
The rich are being allowed to loot and pillage our country by a government turned over to the rich by the Buckley v Valeo decision of 1976. According to Elizabeth Warren, Fed chair Jerome Powell tailored regulation to what the banks wanted rather than what was needed. He's the one raising interest rates to stop inflation, as Dr. Reich has mentioned. Timothy Geithner was reluctant to regulate and Mr. Obama supported Geithner. This is very distressing against a backdrop of repeated tax cuts that go to stock buybacks rather than worker pay increases or investing in plant and facilities. Also distressing considering SVB execs sold their stocks before their bank crashed - shades of Enron. This looks like class warfare to me. Lewis Powell must be smiling, not spinning, in his grave. Not smiling - grinning from ear to ear.
"American capitalism needs strict guardrails. Otherwise, it is subject to periodic crises that summon bailouts. The result is socialism for the rich."
Yes, funny how that works, isn't it? Turns out Dimon either didn't read, or didn't understand, Wealth of Nations when it was taught at Harvard Business School in 1980. Or could it be that that school was even then in the thrall of Supply Side Economics?
Capitalism was never intended to be "free," it was always the MARKET that had to be free, which means that it was the CAPITALIST who had to be restrained, in order to prevent "collusion against the public interest." The main constraints were intended to be very high tax rates and the break-up of monopolies (e.g., no "Too big to fail," on the contrary).
Tax...the...Rich, and tax 'em again. Bring back Glass-Steagall.
Medicare for all, free higher education and paid sick leave requirements are not socialism. They are capital investments in people. Our society would be the beneficiary of people who are healthier and better educated. Even the banking system would benefit. The big bank executives cannot think far enough ahead.
The chaos that has fractured this country can be attributed to a constellation of problems, but one of the greatest is not holding wealthy criminals accountable.
Not only are these criminals not held to account, but as you illustrate with Jamie Dimon, they take advantage of chaos, and thrive.
Time after time, the federal government doesn't bat an eye when handling out taxpayer money to corporate bad actors, or increasing the Pentagon budget to more obscene amounts, but support for the most vulnerable in our society is but a distant afterthought.
For such a wealthy country, we certainly aren't thriving in action or thought.
With bank titan and narcissistic sociopath Jamie Dimon "warning against socialism" for The People, ie; Universal Healthcare, free college and basically anything AOC or Bernie say The People need right now, I really have to ask who is running OUR government?!
I am totally bewildered how any American still thinks that either Obama or Biden are so progressive that they become FDR. Nothing will get better in our lives until we acknowledge how captured by corporations, by greedy sociopaths like Dimon, our Democratic politicians have become.
they're all addicted, prof. Reich, to money & power... because they lack meaningful connection.
the opposite of addiction isn’t sobriety… it’s connection.
👉🏼 https://opentochange.substack.com/p/the-opposite-of-addiction-isnt-sobriety
Someone should ask Dimon if he's against our military if he's so against socialism...
How IS this possible in the "land of the free, home of the brave" wtf ....is there any possibility that we've been drinking the corporate cool-aid for 247 years????
I hope, Robert, that you don’t call socialism “snake oil.” It’s looking better than ever. Take a gander at the good things AOC and Bernie Sanders are advocating for. Jamie Dimon denounces them as he gets obscenely rich. That’s capitalism for you. Is socialism oppressive? Nah!