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.
The supply of similar observations of the corruption in our system seem endless, but solutions escape us. The root of the evil is the pervasive civic ignorance among so much of the voting population. Add to that, the baseless economic theories bandied about as if they were proven facts, such as the classic theory of inflation FED Chairman Powell follows in sabotaging the economy. The greatest enemy in this struggle is the media, all but a remnant owned and controlled by five mega-corporations. The shining example is how Fox News made Roger Ailes the effective head of the Republican Party, and he made the Republican Party the handmaiden of the corporate elites. What is needed now is a way to penetrate that corporate wall between the working class, which is the overwhelming majority, and the corporate power that continues to consolidate.
President Biden has been praised for his maintaining calm in the face of this latest banking crisis. I'm beginning to doubt the wisdom of that. Perhaps it would have been better to be shouting, "Repeal that Trump era weakening of Dodd-Frank before more of us get burned!" None of us has the president's bully pulpit, so who else can get the message out with adequate force? I fear that the media will move on as soon as the next disaster porn event comes along, which climate change is sure to provide, and the banks will again escape accountability.
Our two-party system of Government was designed to be a Government of Checks and Balances. It’s looking more and more like just a lot of Checks, Big Checks! 🤑
meanwhile, anyone who does point out systemic flaws, weaknesses, and corruption is marginalized, ridiculed, and/or ignored by corporate media. For example, Bernie, Chomsky, Warren, Dr. Reich, Varoufakis, Hedges.
Postal banking could be one solution for the common people.
Chomsky and Hedges are brilliant, yet I think they go too far; they're overcritical. I guess they want heaven on Earth, populated with angelic humans. Reich is much more reasonable: Let's fix the egregious problems and not try for utopia.
However, maybe we need gadflies, too. It's just that I can't see Hedges or Chomsky ever being satisfied. Your other recommendations are spot-on, especially Bernie; however, he may be overdemanding, also. Let's face it: We're dealing with selfish, violent, low-IQ'd animals here, not wise saints.
Every single person doing their part makes progress possible. That means everyone -- from the most brilliant utopian linguist, to the most practical politician, from the fund-raiser to the speech writer, from the phone bank volunteer to the person who mops the floor at campaign headquarters.
We're alll in this together. No one is too idealistic, no one too pragmatic.
It is great to see your thoughts again Jerry. Thank you for doing all the things that need to be done and for doing them in digestible bites so they can finally become a successful meal of change.
Thank you for being out there for all of us. Whether we are up for the big steps or the little steps, your breadcrumbs give us hope along the journey’s path.
No, we need the right hands on deck doing the right thing at the right time. The right road map is thus essential. Bernie, Liz, and AOC have it; millions of Americans are following the wrong road map, cf. Jan. 6.
well all the saints and prophets went too far, (as did jesus - he paid the roman price, didn't he?). I don't know what the answer is. yes, the bulk of humanity is damaged, willfully ignorant, selfish, easily manipulated, and unethical. However, all that being said, I do believe we are all complicit. i like my pension, warm house, good food, clean water, etc. I'm not sure I care anymore that it's at the expense of others. Ghandhi said poverty is the worst form of violence, and also that there is enough for all our needs, but not all our greed. so i harden my heart as i drive by homeless, mentally ill, and those without my white privilege.
Not a saint myself, but from your comment, I conclude that your mind is strong, your body content, and your heart weak. A happy person, a self-actualized person, a fully developed person would have his tripartite being in balance.
Or am I wrong? Are you indeed happy? You may be; I'm trying to figure out this stuff as I go along, and this is where I have most lately arrived. (What choice do I have? We get no Life Instruction Manual at birth.)
We should aim for utopia and maybe we will get a little more equality and justice for the masses. If we just tinker with a rotten system we just put off the next crises.
Well for starters, re-frame the question. What are the solutions?
We can't just expect that Bernie or AOC, or Joe Biden for that matter, will be our savior. There's work to do at every level. Aside from electoral campaigns, there are dozens, no hundreds, of organizations of all sizes working for progress. They all need support and help.
For example, there's a movement to spread the use of ranked-choice voting which counters the effect of gerrymandering (www.FairVote.com).
Practically speaking, whatever you can get through Congress is better than nothing. The evildoers do just that, Glass-Steagall falls to Dodd-Frank falls to Trump's repeal (I don't know the name of it).
Yes Dennis! This “ blather “ by an unscrupulous “business bore” about what “socialism “ is. Aren’t we sick to death of all of this? Even Obama who lives right up there on that “socialism” disinformation has sailed away in his buddies yachts. Oh my God! Save us from Creeping Corporate hand jobs!
I am exhausted . Can’t “ come again” for this lying fraudulent fiendish BIG BUSINESS that American business deems “better than socialism”! Really?????? Rage is starting to creep up my leg into my heart!
Your's is a really good response. I totally agree. We need to be shouting from the rooftops against what the greed in this country is doing to "We the people".
The solutions do not escape us - if the problem is corruption then observation alone is not enough; if the problem is something else, such observations only belie the contempt with which the American public is treated (Robert Mueller did his job - but each of us must do the same, no differently).
I am not convinced that mueller did his job. i think he should have adhered to his oath to put country before politics, that is, he should NEVER have kept silent about Barr's obstruction. He should NEVER have accepted that a sitting president could not be indicted based on a corrupt memorandum from decades prior, about a corrupt president. What did he have to lose except his self-respect (I hope he can't' sleep at night). He's rich, retired. Above the law like all the rest of them. What a farce that was. He was also involved earlier in his career in something less than scrupulous, but I'll leave that to your investigation if you're interested.
It's hard to disagree - but one has to wonder what kind of world would necessitate such considerations (what kind of party would compromise about its standard-bearer not only to the effect of that memorandum being authored - but then extended upon with questions of international justice a la unprecedented "pre-emptive" warfare?)...
truly the enormity of these questions is really beyond my ability to comprehend. we live in a tangled web of causes/conditions, sordid histories and players. I'm 71, so born 6 years after ww2.
we had a generation of men (raised/influenced by a previously shattered generation of men victimized by the oligarchs who created ww1.) who came back from war to pick up the pieces of their lives, while trying to do the "correct" political things, (being influenced by several different strains of demagoguery that they fought against) and, I think for the most part, were sincere in not wanting to see that carnage and demagoguery reoccur. these men started the flowering of a successful middle class, educated, literate and with a fairly high number of critical thinkers. but it ended when oligarchs in charge of the military industrial complex got disturbed by critically thinking students demanding an end to an illegal and immoral vietnam war, and the profits accruing thereto. (anyone notice how much manufactured goods come from vietnam today?)
anyway raygun started that attack on education, labor, and continued the war on people of color.
my readings in buddhism suggest that until each of us has a strong, ethical inner life, not much can improve. a possibly nihilistic view might be that consider the 8 billion people on this planet. In 100 years, most of them will be dead. what did it all mean?
I agree Rishi, observing and reporting corruption is not enough. Corruption requires action, It is the action that is difficult for the American public. Action requires an attorney. According to Google 0.036% are attorneys (less than 1.5 million Americans - approximately 1 for every 300) Of those (less than 1.5 million attorneys less) than 8 thousand practice criminal law and even fewer are in Constitutional law. Adding to that difficulty, such cases would have to be either pro bono (free) or class action as none of us in the 90% are millionaires. And the really corrupt bankers, brokers, corporate CEO's, Boards or directors, insurance companies, etc., and corrupt politicians are willing to spend several million (if not billion) dollars to purchase attorneys, judges and even jurors to maintain the level of corruption they now enjoy. We, and the honest, honorable politicians missed the boat when McConnell et al, stacked the courts against us from 1998 to 2020.
If that wasn't enough, add the fact that litigation is a contentious process - meaning people walk away with hurt feelings and an aversion (not to mention what the system loses to mistakes, e.g. wrongful prosecution - for which there are even fewer practitioners); a keen insight - but also the reason we say "Barbara Lee speaks for me!" in the local area (as Guantanamo Bay wouldn't be open to this day if such concerns were practicable for a given individual).
I am in a distinct position of opposition to your thought .
I've been collecting privacy statements and T&Cs I'm every site i visit--for me ,
I do not want my third party
(" ") info collection to be owned and distributed by anyone in the world after i
"agree" to read a science journal! We know for a fact--
& you must have noticed
mr shou's LENGTHY pause as he gathered his wits to state "we never give information to the government"? I felt sorry for him too but butBUTBUTBUT
---GENOCIDE ?? 🧱🤐 ??
give him /them big-time opportunity to TESLA how are young people... hour maybe too vaiy via TikTok to VOTE ? 🚀 off the coast of Japan--JAPAN?? not my interpretation of free speech--& i am card-carrying member of the aclu
( fully aware ACLU represents
Bad boys too, in attempts
To defend all Civil Liberties)
--for me, r/o CC, r/o 👉👆🏾 @ my man kelley & Veto Joe
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.
The rest of that story is that the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank had the potential to be a big problem for national security, since a number of the affected start-ups were working on projects for the defense sector.
“If you want to kind of knock out the seed corn for the next decade or two of innovative tech, much of which we need for the competition with China, [collapsing SVB] would have been a very effective blow. [Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin] would have been cheering to see so many companies fail.”
Daniel, yes, and they are cheering now that we have nearly unregulated banks that are funding and supporting those start-ups. It is scary what deregulation has done and will do if not stopped with good effective regulation. The "good" regulations need to go beyond just having banks manage stress tests. It would be a good deal if Biden were to appoint a committee of a range of people from economists, bankers, business people, and a few knowledgeable members of Congress and a governor or two, to look honestly at the problems and come up with practical, and meaningful solutions.
No sense in appointing more foxes to guard the henhouse. With almost no exception the potential appointees to your committee are seriously compromised by the false theoretical assumptions/presumptions of neo-classical economics, exhibit an ideological and self-serving impulse towards deregulation, benefit from a continued political commitment to neoliberalism (ie, serving the oligarchs), hold a class-based disdain or, at best, mistrust of the working-class citizenry, all made into a tidy package held together by a fervent faith in the miraculous interventions of the invisible hand of the market.
Everything that needs to be done is in the hands of Biden, and I'm afraid that in that regards he is impotent and part of the problem.
The saddest thing for me was seeing Obama allow the abuse to continue without demanding that the banks reconfigure their fraudulent loans allowing people to keep their homes, fine Obama needed to get his emotions off his chest but did noting constructive about it, words are not enough, it also needs to be backed up with action.
I also note that via news feed this morning from SBS Australia https://www.sbs.com.au/ that Elizabeth Warren is now putting in place an Investigation via DOJ into the 'çollapse' of SVB.
Good luck with that! I wrote to POTUS and VP about seven months ago and never got a response, and I paid $34.00 for the privilege to have it delivered by Australia Post/USPS.
Money as speech just MIGHT need revisiting! That stupid "money is speech" idea just proves the seriousness of the addiction to money and power a whole lot of people in our nation have, even our Conservative SC justices, all given regular hits of dough so they can function, and they never have to be investigated since they have lifetime appointments. It seems to me the difference between their addiction and that of drug users is that they seem healthy and are not condemned to poverty and possible prison due to their addiction.
The Supreme Court of Roman Catholic Church is bound and determined to make this country into a theocracy of the one hand and a fascist State on the other hand all run by the Pope.
Of course the Republi-cons believe it is they mot that pope who is actually in charge. Will the papacy when that war or will it be some autocrat connected up with Putin?
S Howard, what makes you think the SC Catholics agree with one another. Sorry sir, but the the SC shall never agree, I don’t care how you slice or dice it. Most Catholics I suspect are like me in that I want to make up my own mind on how I worship the all powerful. And you sir unless you are Catholic have no right to stigmatize Catholics with your all encompassing judgement!
"When in the course of human events..........." But where do we go from here? Frank Sobotka, a character on the series, "The Wire" said, "You know what the trouble is Brucey? We used to make shit in this country, build shit. Now we just put our hand in the next guy's pocket." I remember Biden saying that those jobs overseas aren't coming back, and I thought, "Why not?" Barbara Jo Krieger replied to my comment on Reich's essay, "Two big upcoming theatrical performances" the other day with a plan. It's a good plan and worth a try. It begins by focusing our efforts on D.C. and Puerto Rican statehood. Who is working on this and how do I join them?
Biden wasn’t exactly accurate when he said jobs aren’t coming back. Some will but manufacturing will comeback into the americas to certain degree. The pandemic showed in a crisis the supply side and shipping issues that destroyed costs for many businesses. It also highlighted the importance of having a strong local food chain. Add on that we’re entering into a detente period with China and manufacturing will flow back into this hemisphere. Early estimates figured 15ish% of manufacturing will flow back into the US. There’s prob another 15-20% min that will come back into central and South America.
Belvidere, Illinois just lost an auto manufacturing plant that has been here for over 50 years to Mexico. When is the exodus of manufacturing going to end? Mexico now has universal healthcare. How can the US compete with Mexico when the unions have to include healthcare in the contracts?
I saw that. There’s multiple issues going on there. The larger issue is lack of accountability and responsibility of individuals and industry. Govt and markets reward bad behavior and abuses. Allowing money to flow offshore costs the country billions in taxes. Labor rights have been peeled away in courts. Walmart gets rewarded for firing their best ppl, having full time employees who need state and federal assistance to survive. They aggressively prosecute for shoplifting when customers aren’t cashiers so they can demand civil fines. Expanding wage inequalities get rewarded. Market mechanisms are not working properly. Political interference is more toxic than beneficial. It shouldn’t be so easy for industry to pick up leave allow flight of capital and labor. It almost seemed the auto plant was intentionally ran into the ground to create a premise to move out of county. If institutions don’t do their jobs and hold ppl and entities accountable it will only get worse.
Don't begrudge Mexico for doing better for their people. Too many people are complaining about immigration, but then complain when jobs are offshored. Sorry, you cannot have it both ways. YES, businesses will often put their profits ahead of their employees and communities, and offshoring is one way to to that. It will improve the economy of those gaining countries, and wages and the standard of living will improve, and maybe, just maybe, the world benefits.
Govt of Mexico really didn’t enter into my thinking. The scope at the plant seemed so narrowed I wonder if it was doomed to fail. I’m very curious though if the new plant in Mexico will have the same scope or be expanded. They can’t protect Americans crossing the border purchasing goods and services or tourists staying at resorts (ppl are still mysteriously dying), so I’m not so sure how well they’ll protect corporate business interests. This is a Stellantis decision. They already have a plant in Mexico as does Tesla and gm. If anything, the question is if our govt should/can offer any temporary relief that can offset the rising material costs. They should try to find alternative manufacturing to takeover the old plant too
Let me remind you that "the government" IS the U.S. Taxpayer and any monetary benefit granted to a PRIVATE CORPORATION IS A SUBSIDY (SOCIALISM) for those who do NOT need it. Maybe the true answer is FINANCIAL PENALTIES for those corporations when they bring the products made with cheap labor in other countries back into the U.S. to be sold.
Who should be responsible for paying for health insurance? It’s part or should be part of an employees compensation. It’s in an employers best interest to have healthy labor. Even with national healthcare it needs to get funded. It’s a must have at this point. Between companies shenanigans over the past 20 years, too many states allowing the shenanigans and trying to kill Obamacare, and what the healthcare, big pharma and insurance industries are getting away with, there no alternative anymore to provide good affordable healthcare any other way. Employees can pay a share but the bulk of the money should come from corporate taxes. Budgets for Medicare. Medicaid and vets can cover the rest and then some. Small business definitely shouldn’t get crushed but the same way you need to carry workers comp, they can pay something reasonable for their employees too
There are those who don't want manufacturing with all its pollution and toxicity returning to the US. There are those who don't want to live as many Chinese do: wearing masks everywhere including in their own homes. There is a downside--pollution plus others--to all these manufacturing jobs.
The technology exists for new construction to build environmentally friendly factories. Tech sector creates massive pollution. EV are still less environmentally friendly than gas engines. If it’s not one thing it’s another unless you deal with issues on a large scale. There was horrendous pollution in China before US manufacturing moved there and China has been much more aggressive than the US to reduce areas of high pollution. There can be benefits to force new sectors to deal with issues. Even if the manufacturing moves to central and South America it will increase transportation pollution. In the end there are products that are basic necessities that everyone needs. If it’s done properly it could spearhead innovation to reduce overall pollution.
I still think that guys like Dimon can be educated to a certain extent. They live and work in an echo chamber. Put him in the same room with people like Robert rather than people playing the game of monopoly and I think he will express some democratic goals. He has to reject the MAGA dog whistle, has to recognize that Russia and China are constant threats, that there is too much income inequality.
The problem with guys like him is they want to do all of the talking when they should be listening.
I ask, WHY is Dimon still the CEO of JPMorgan when his bank was directly involved in the financial crisis of 2008? He should be "behind the bars"! If not that, at least she should be REMOVED from his position for his companies involvement. He, as CEO, CANNOT claim ignorance!! Again, we have a "lack of accountability". Or, is it just the muscle of ORGANIZED CRIME?
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.
Toxic capitalism should fail; instead, the corporate politicians in both parties gobble up money and rape the regular American citizen. Our country is governed by oligarchs, many of whom want fascism to cement their power and hold on our government so they can treat the 99% as if we are peasants they can exploit to work and make more money for them.
From onset we had a "mixed" economy. Washington, then richest man in America, built the "national road" to some of his properties in the west, now northern Kentucky and southern Ohio. He set up a welfare system in the new city of DC. Constitution set up the post office.
Our founders may not have done us a favor when they permitted failures to use bankruptcy protection. For a lot of creditors, it's legalized theft.
They also should have established a national bank.
There is no specific provision in the Constitution that set up FDR administrative law but in 1947 Congress passed the Administrative Procedure Act that establishes a "mini-Constitution" for agencies to enact regulations. Under attack by SCOTUS. Need to elevate it to Constitutional level.
Have you read "American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper" by Jacob S. Hacker? If not, I recommend it highly. One quote from the book: "The mixed economy may be the greatest invention in history."
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?
The horrible MTG declares war between the red & blue states. I think the “war” will be like the French Revolution when all of us 99% Americans rise up against the 1% and say we won’t accept the current affairs anymore. Unfortunately, I think that will take a change in the American idea that anyone can be the next Jamie Dimon or Jeff Bezos. While I believe anyone in our country has the potential to be successful, I do not think the opportunity is there for each of us to be in the 1%. To do that, you have to sell your soul to be focused on only yourself and how much you can accrue while the underlings who work and make money for you do so without good health insurance or by working multiple jobs to afford current housing and food costs.
Reading what happened to Marcie Powers and her husband is a stark reminder of what happens when greedy oligarchs take the power of our government & society.
Trump….ugh, I hate even writing his name….is the perfect example of what is wrong in our country, yet the downtrodden think he’s the ‘messiah’….because he ‘talks the talk’
What his minions don’t realize he’s the Wizard behind the curtain who wants to be the King on the throne, and oppress his fold! Money is his god, and power is his altar!
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?
The problem with capitalism is just in the name -- capital means money, and capitalism values that above all else. Above people, above workers, above making a good product, etc. The motive isn’t “the community motive” like in Confucianism, it’s “the profit motive.”
The thing is is that humans are not about competition. We’re all about cooperation and kinship. A greedy prehistoric human probably wouldn’t survive, and would be shunned by the group.
In nature, greedy monkeys are often rejected from groups. Meanwhile, humans are praising people like Zuckerberg and Bezos -- our greedy monkeys -- and putting them on magazine covers.
I don't agree it is just in the name. It is as you said after that....capitalism values that above all else. I don't agree that humans are not about competition. Humans like a challenge...the reason we have games. What we need to be is smarter and more compassionate as individuals. Some are. Some aren't. The reason some people aren't so smart or compassionate...that's another topic...mental health, genes, education, abuse, lack responsibility, ethics, etc.
I mean competitive in life. I’m not talking about in games, like Soccer or Baseball, or Capture the Flag — which are healthy competition and really fun.
I also agree that there are other factors with people being dispassionate — I would argue against genes being a factor though. It’s mostly nature rather than nurture that influences people.
Competition is competition, whether life or games. I just don't think we are all about cooperation and kinship. We are more complex than that and people are different in how they approach life, their philosophies, etc. Sounds like you are applying something from a history book about how people got together, created towns and so on. So okay. That's fine.
When we’re at our best we’re about cooperation — but often our environment pushes us away from that. There are always disagreements and healthy rivalry, of course.
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?
I expect this controlling sociopathic behavior from greedy CEOs like Dimon but Obama--OUR president! basically said he was 'all in' to protect Dimon from our pitchforks. Obama specifically protected the greedy bankers in 2009, not us!! Is this okay with everybody here???
He is clearly a big disappointment. His comment, quoted in Reich’s piece is revelatory of his mind set: he is a true believer in capitalism. Can anyone become president in the current system without being thoroughly " vetted" by the banks and captains of industry?
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.
1. Jerome Powell is a Republican. 2. Have you seen the current make up of Congress? 3. 90% of Americans want gun control, 70% of Americans want access to abortion. Do see my point? We do not actually have a representational democracy in the US.
Unless we eliminate the Electoral College system, we will be hostages to donor money.
Martha-- our problems will continue to plague our society until we return to a majority rule culture. To let minorities control the way we life is an upside Democracy. Boebert and Greene probable feel right at home with their feet in the air.
Andrea--We currently have a Democratic administration in Washington run by a corrupt Republican political machine fueled by Trumpism. You want to know how sick our political system is, there you have it in a nut shell.
Andrea---I agree with your assumptions surrounding Trump but he isn't the problem. It's the uneducated MAGA's that won't listen to the truth. Trump holds no power if his base can finally see past his BS. How do we reach them?
As to how to reach rightwing braindead cultists? I don't know that there is any way to convince them if they haven't already. Jim Jones & Manson knew the secret, but I don't know who else does.
Do you want the brutally honest truth? They want blood and violence. That is the only language they understand. We are facing the same forces that caused the American and French Revolutions 250 years ago. The question is who would be the target.
You miss the point made in the newsletter. When Democrats cause harm on the citizenry by serving the interests of the oligarchs, the citizenry will turn to demagogues. YOU are the one Reich is trying to educate!!!
I never said anything about demagogues one way or another. Your comment is correct about the populace seeking demagogues when frustrated by their leaders but I never referred to this issue. Ignorant comment. Or are you jealous a female has a brain?
Paul--What you described in your introduction refers to the Republicans. As for my education, let's just say I had one. If Robert has anything to say to me lets start with how do I get the gray blotch next to me name to reflect a paid status.
Dimon loves everything that isn't for helping The People. "Socialism" is just a word greedy rich throw around making sure no one who isn't greedy rich get all the socialism they get.
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.
The supply of similar observations of the corruption in our system seem endless, but solutions escape us. The root of the evil is the pervasive civic ignorance among so much of the voting population. Add to that, the baseless economic theories bandied about as if they were proven facts, such as the classic theory of inflation FED Chairman Powell follows in sabotaging the economy. The greatest enemy in this struggle is the media, all but a remnant owned and controlled by five mega-corporations. The shining example is how Fox News made Roger Ailes the effective head of the Republican Party, and he made the Republican Party the handmaiden of the corporate elites. What is needed now is a way to penetrate that corporate wall between the working class, which is the overwhelming majority, and the corporate power that continues to consolidate.
President Biden has been praised for his maintaining calm in the face of this latest banking crisis. I'm beginning to doubt the wisdom of that. Perhaps it would have been better to be shouting, "Repeal that Trump era weakening of Dodd-Frank before more of us get burned!" None of us has the president's bully pulpit, so who else can get the message out with adequate force? I fear that the media will move on as soon as the next disaster porn event comes along, which climate change is sure to provide, and the banks will again escape accountability.
Our two-party system of Government was designed to be a Government of Checks and Balances. It’s looking more and more like just a lot of Checks, Big Checks! 🤑
meanwhile, anyone who does point out systemic flaws, weaknesses, and corruption is marginalized, ridiculed, and/or ignored by corporate media. For example, Bernie, Chomsky, Warren, Dr. Reich, Varoufakis, Hedges.
Postal banking could be one solution for the common people.
Chomsky and Hedges are brilliant, yet I think they go too far; they're overcritical. I guess they want heaven on Earth, populated with angelic humans. Reich is much more reasonable: Let's fix the egregious problems and not try for utopia.
However, maybe we need gadflies, too. It's just that I can't see Hedges or Chomsky ever being satisfied. Your other recommendations are spot-on, especially Bernie; however, he may be overdemanding, also. Let's face it: We're dealing with selfish, violent, low-IQ'd animals here, not wise saints.
James, we need all hands on deck.
Every single person doing their part makes progress possible. That means everyone -- from the most brilliant utopian linguist, to the most practical politician, from the fund-raiser to the speech writer, from the phone bank volunteer to the person who mops the floor at campaign headquarters.
We're alll in this together. No one is too idealistic, no one too pragmatic.
.
It is great to see your thoughts again Jerry. Thank you for doing all the things that need to be done and for doing them in digestible bites so they can finally become a successful meal of change.
Thank you for being out there for all of us. Whether we are up for the big steps or the little steps, your breadcrumbs give us hope along the journey’s path.
🤗🎶👏🏻🦋
No, we need the right hands on deck doing the right thing at the right time. The right road map is thus essential. Bernie, Liz, and AOC have it; millions of Americans are following the wrong road map, cf. Jan. 6.
You have a point there, James.
When I said "all hands on deck", I meant our deck. Obviously, I'm not cheer-leading for the the pirates.
.
well all the saints and prophets went too far, (as did jesus - he paid the roman price, didn't he?). I don't know what the answer is. yes, the bulk of humanity is damaged, willfully ignorant, selfish, easily manipulated, and unethical. However, all that being said, I do believe we are all complicit. i like my pension, warm house, good food, clean water, etc. I'm not sure I care anymore that it's at the expense of others. Ghandhi said poverty is the worst form of violence, and also that there is enough for all our needs, but not all our greed. so i harden my heart as i drive by homeless, mentally ill, and those without my white privilege.
Not a saint myself, but from your comment, I conclude that your mind is strong, your body content, and your heart weak. A happy person, a self-actualized person, a fully developed person would have his tripartite being in balance.
Or am I wrong? Are you indeed happy? You may be; I'm trying to figure out this stuff as I go along, and this is where I have most lately arrived. (What choice do I have? We get no Life Instruction Manual at birth.)
accurate analysis. too selfish, too self indulgent, but working on it.
We should aim for utopia and maybe we will get a little more equality and justice for the masses. If we just tinker with a rotten system we just put off the next crises.
Okay, what's the solution
Well for starters, re-frame the question. What are the solutions?
We can't just expect that Bernie or AOC, or Joe Biden for that matter, will be our savior. There's work to do at every level. Aside from electoral campaigns, there are dozens, no hundreds, of organizations of all sizes working for progress. They all need support and help.
For example, there's a movement to spread the use of ranked-choice voting which counters the effect of gerrymandering (www.FairVote.com).
There's Jessica Craven's substack publication with its daily menu of who to contact about which issues (www.ChopWoodCarryWaterDailyActions.substack.com).
There's a movement for a Constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United (www.MoveToAmend.org).
And of course, there's the network I represent, working to help remove and replace Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House (FeathersOfHope.net)
The point is, no one can do everything. Everyone can do something.
.
Remember how Katie Porter took Dimond to task w/her white board? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlJnznzkSf4
Repeal Citizens United, a misnomer of epic proportions!
Money is NOT free Speech!
Practically speaking, whatever you can get through Congress is better than nothing. The evildoers do just that, Glass-Steagall falls to Dodd-Frank falls to Trump's repeal (I don't know the name of it).
Precisely! They get it, we need to as well.
Small steps result from large visions. The vision remains and leads to more small steps. The vision remains and . . . That's how progress happens.
.
How do Paul?
Yes Dennis! This “ blather “ by an unscrupulous “business bore” about what “socialism “ is. Aren’t we sick to death of all of this? Even Obama who lives right up there on that “socialism” disinformation has sailed away in his buddies yachts. Oh my God! Save us from Creeping Corporate hand jobs!
I am exhausted . Can’t “ come again” for this lying fraudulent fiendish BIG BUSINESS that American business deems “better than socialism”! Really?????? Rage is starting to creep up my leg into my heart!
rage 😡 has crept so ⬆️ past my legs that I AM PRENANT
WITH RAGE !! I'M IN FLORIDA & AM WELL-PAST
6 WEEKS !!
Your's is a really good response. I totally agree. We need to be shouting from the rooftops against what the greed in this country is doing to "We the people".
kinda why i email these to
Fox, Atlantic, cnn, msnbc,
ceo-s of big banks--etc
depending on topic--earlier,
musk got a hit--
Great response, Dennis. I agree the "media" works against the best interests of America.
The solutions do not escape us - if the problem is corruption then observation alone is not enough; if the problem is something else, such observations only belie the contempt with which the American public is treated (Robert Mueller did his job - but each of us must do the same, no differently).
I am not convinced that mueller did his job. i think he should have adhered to his oath to put country before politics, that is, he should NEVER have kept silent about Barr's obstruction. He should NEVER have accepted that a sitting president could not be indicted based on a corrupt memorandum from decades prior, about a corrupt president. What did he have to lose except his self-respect (I hope he can't' sleep at night). He's rich, retired. Above the law like all the rest of them. What a farce that was. He was also involved earlier in his career in something less than scrupulous, but I'll leave that to your investigation if you're interested.
I have always wanted to know the content of his phone call with Barr. He knew it was coming and you know he recorded it .
It's hard to disagree - but one has to wonder what kind of world would necessitate such considerations (what kind of party would compromise about its standard-bearer not only to the effect of that memorandum being authored - but then extended upon with questions of international justice a la unprecedented "pre-emptive" warfare?)...
truly the enormity of these questions is really beyond my ability to comprehend. we live in a tangled web of causes/conditions, sordid histories and players. I'm 71, so born 6 years after ww2.
we had a generation of men (raised/influenced by a previously shattered generation of men victimized by the oligarchs who created ww1.) who came back from war to pick up the pieces of their lives, while trying to do the "correct" political things, (being influenced by several different strains of demagoguery that they fought against) and, I think for the most part, were sincere in not wanting to see that carnage and demagoguery reoccur. these men started the flowering of a successful middle class, educated, literate and with a fairly high number of critical thinkers. but it ended when oligarchs in charge of the military industrial complex got disturbed by critically thinking students demanding an end to an illegal and immoral vietnam war, and the profits accruing thereto. (anyone notice how much manufactured goods come from vietnam today?)
anyway raygun started that attack on education, labor, and continued the war on people of color.
my readings in buddhism suggest that until each of us has a strong, ethical inner life, not much can improve. a possibly nihilistic view might be that consider the 8 billion people on this planet. In 100 years, most of them will be dead. what did it all mean?
OMMMMMMMM! The only certain thing in life is change.
Everybody wants to get "Theirs" and Devil take the hindmost.
In the words of John Slater and music of Andrew Lloyd Weber (:-)
I agree Rishi, observing and reporting corruption is not enough. Corruption requires action, It is the action that is difficult for the American public. Action requires an attorney. According to Google 0.036% are attorneys (less than 1.5 million Americans - approximately 1 for every 300) Of those (less than 1.5 million attorneys less) than 8 thousand practice criminal law and even fewer are in Constitutional law. Adding to that difficulty, such cases would have to be either pro bono (free) or class action as none of us in the 90% are millionaires. And the really corrupt bankers, brokers, corporate CEO's, Boards or directors, insurance companies, etc., and corrupt politicians are willing to spend several million (if not billion) dollars to purchase attorneys, judges and even jurors to maintain the level of corruption they now enjoy. We, and the honest, honorable politicians missed the boat when McConnell et al, stacked the courts against us from 1998 to 2020.
If that wasn't enough, add the fact that litigation is a contentious process - meaning people walk away with hurt feelings and an aversion (not to mention what the system loses to mistakes, e.g. wrongful prosecution - for which there are even fewer practitioners); a keen insight - but also the reason we say "Barbara Lee speaks for me!" in the local area (as Guantanamo Bay wouldn't be open to this day if such concerns were practicable for a given individual).
*They* could get to the bottom of an email server, for sure...!
french pres macron OPTS FOR A 'ONE CHINA' POLICY
--would that please you ?
I returned my nonfunctional
CC made dimmable table lamp with its usb outlets
for FEAR CC CD ACCESS MY
INFO. I think if I'm understanding correctly,
I am in a distinct position of opposition to your thought .
I've been collecting privacy statements and T&Cs I'm every site i visit--for me ,
I do not want my third party
(" ") info collection to be owned and distributed by anyone in the world after i
"agree" to read a science journal! We know for a fact--
& you must have noticed
mr shou's LENGTHY pause as he gathered his wits to state "we never give information to the government"? I felt sorry for him too but butBUTBUTBUT
---GENOCIDE ?? 🧱🤐 ??
give him /them big-time opportunity to TESLA how are young people... hour maybe too vaiy via TikTok to VOTE ? 🚀 off the coast of Japan--JAPAN?? not my interpretation of free speech--& i am card-carrying member of the aclu
( fully aware ACLU represents
Bad boys too, in attempts
To defend all Civil Liberties)
--for me, r/o CC, r/o 👉👆🏾 @ my man kelley & Veto Joe
to quote eecummings:
"THERE IS SOME S
I WILL NOT EAT"
yes, I know he died a fascist
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
The rest of that story is that the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank had the potential to be a big problem for national security, since a number of the affected start-ups were working on projects for the defense sector.
“If you want to kind of knock out the seed corn for the next decade or two of innovative tech, much of which we need for the competition with China, [collapsing SVB] would have been a very effective blow. [Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin] would have been cheering to see so many companies fail.”
Daniel, yes, and they are cheering now that we have nearly unregulated banks that are funding and supporting those start-ups. It is scary what deregulation has done and will do if not stopped with good effective regulation. The "good" regulations need to go beyond just having banks manage stress tests. It would be a good deal if Biden were to appoint a committee of a range of people from economists, bankers, business people, and a few knowledgeable members of Congress and a governor or two, to look honestly at the problems and come up with practical, and meaningful solutions.
No sense in appointing more foxes to guard the henhouse. With almost no exception the potential appointees to your committee are seriously compromised by the false theoretical assumptions/presumptions of neo-classical economics, exhibit an ideological and self-serving impulse towards deregulation, benefit from a continued political commitment to neoliberalism (ie, serving the oligarchs), hold a class-based disdain or, at best, mistrust of the working-class citizenry, all made into a tidy package held together by a fervent faith in the miraculous interventions of the invisible hand of the market.
Everything that needs to be done is in the hands of Biden, and I'm afraid that in that regards he is impotent and part of the problem.
The saddest thing for me was seeing Obama allow the abuse to continue without demanding that the banks reconfigure their fraudulent loans allowing people to keep their homes, fine Obama needed to get his emotions off his chest but did noting constructive about it, words are not enough, it also needs to be backed up with action.
I also note that via news feed this morning from SBS Australia https://www.sbs.com.au/ that Elizabeth Warren is now putting in place an Investigation via DOJ into the 'çollapse' of SVB.
forwarded to white house, ossoff, kelly, cfpb, treasury
secretary, et al !
Good luck with that! I wrote to POTUS and VP about seven months ago and never got a response, and I paid $34.00 for the privilege to have it delivered by Australia Post/USPS.
Money as speech just MIGHT need revisiting! That stupid "money is speech" idea just proves the seriousness of the addiction to money and power a whole lot of people in our nation have, even our Conservative SC justices, all given regular hits of dough so they can function, and they never have to be investigated since they have lifetime appointments. It seems to me the difference between their addiction and that of drug users is that they seem healthy and are not condemned to poverty and possible prison due to their addiction.
The Supreme Court of Roman Catholic Church is bound and determined to make this country into a theocracy of the one hand and a fascist State on the other hand all run by the Pope.
Of course the Republi-cons believe it is they mot that pope who is actually in charge. Will the papacy when that war or will it be some autocrat connected up with Putin?
S Howard, what makes you think the SC Catholics agree with one another. Sorry sir, but the the SC shall never agree, I don’t care how you slice or dice it. Most Catholics I suspect are like me in that I want to make up my own mind on how I worship the all powerful. And you sir unless you are Catholic have no right to stigmatize Catholics with your all encompassing judgement!
it was obvious from the start....rigged court
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.
"When in the course of human events..........." But where do we go from here? Frank Sobotka, a character on the series, "The Wire" said, "You know what the trouble is Brucey? We used to make shit in this country, build shit. Now we just put our hand in the next guy's pocket." I remember Biden saying that those jobs overseas aren't coming back, and I thought, "Why not?" Barbara Jo Krieger replied to my comment on Reich's essay, "Two big upcoming theatrical performances" the other day with a plan. It's a good plan and worth a try. It begins by focusing our efforts on D.C. and Puerto Rican statehood. Who is working on this and how do I join them?
Biden wasn’t exactly accurate when he said jobs aren’t coming back. Some will but manufacturing will comeback into the americas to certain degree. The pandemic showed in a crisis the supply side and shipping issues that destroyed costs for many businesses. It also highlighted the importance of having a strong local food chain. Add on that we’re entering into a detente period with China and manufacturing will flow back into this hemisphere. Early estimates figured 15ish% of manufacturing will flow back into the US. There’s prob another 15-20% min that will come back into central and South America.
Belvidere, Illinois just lost an auto manufacturing plant that has been here for over 50 years to Mexico. When is the exodus of manufacturing going to end? Mexico now has universal healthcare. How can the US compete with Mexico when the unions have to include healthcare in the contracts?
I saw that. There’s multiple issues going on there. The larger issue is lack of accountability and responsibility of individuals and industry. Govt and markets reward bad behavior and abuses. Allowing money to flow offshore costs the country billions in taxes. Labor rights have been peeled away in courts. Walmart gets rewarded for firing their best ppl, having full time employees who need state and federal assistance to survive. They aggressively prosecute for shoplifting when customers aren’t cashiers so they can demand civil fines. Expanding wage inequalities get rewarded. Market mechanisms are not working properly. Political interference is more toxic than beneficial. It shouldn’t be so easy for industry to pick up leave allow flight of capital and labor. It almost seemed the auto plant was intentionally ran into the ground to create a premise to move out of county. If institutions don’t do their jobs and hold ppl and entities accountable it will only get worse.
Don't begrudge Mexico for doing better for their people. Too many people are complaining about immigration, but then complain when jobs are offshored. Sorry, you cannot have it both ways. YES, businesses will often put their profits ahead of their employees and communities, and offshoring is one way to to that. It will improve the economy of those gaining countries, and wages and the standard of living will improve, and maybe, just maybe, the world benefits.
Govt of Mexico really didn’t enter into my thinking. The scope at the plant seemed so narrowed I wonder if it was doomed to fail. I’m very curious though if the new plant in Mexico will have the same scope or be expanded. They can’t protect Americans crossing the border purchasing goods and services or tourists staying at resorts (ppl are still mysteriously dying), so I’m not so sure how well they’ll protect corporate business interests. This is a Stellantis decision. They already have a plant in Mexico as does Tesla and gm. If anything, the question is if our govt should/can offer any temporary relief that can offset the rising material costs. They should try to find alternative manufacturing to takeover the old plant too
Let me remind you that "the government" IS the U.S. Taxpayer and any monetary benefit granted to a PRIVATE CORPORATION IS A SUBSIDY (SOCIALISM) for those who do NOT need it. Maybe the true answer is FINANCIAL PENALTIES for those corporations when they bring the products made with cheap labor in other countries back into the U.S. to be sold.
Who should be responsible for paying for health insurance? It’s part or should be part of an employees compensation. It’s in an employers best interest to have healthy labor. Even with national healthcare it needs to get funded. It’s a must have at this point. Between companies shenanigans over the past 20 years, too many states allowing the shenanigans and trying to kill Obamacare, and what the healthcare, big pharma and insurance industries are getting away with, there no alternative anymore to provide good affordable healthcare any other way. Employees can pay a share but the bulk of the money should come from corporate taxes. Budgets for Medicare. Medicaid and vets can cover the rest and then some. Small business definitely shouldn’t get crushed but the same way you need to carry workers comp, they can pay something reasonable for their employees too
Worker's comp should be much cheaper with the medical expenses paid by UHC. Worker's comp lawyers won't like that.
There are those who don't want manufacturing with all its pollution and toxicity returning to the US. There are those who don't want to live as many Chinese do: wearing masks everywhere including in their own homes. There is a downside--pollution plus others--to all these manufacturing jobs.
The technology exists for new construction to build environmentally friendly factories. Tech sector creates massive pollution. EV are still less environmentally friendly than gas engines. If it’s not one thing it’s another unless you deal with issues on a large scale. There was horrendous pollution in China before US manufacturing moved there and China has been much more aggressive than the US to reduce areas of high pollution. There can be benefits to force new sectors to deal with issues. Even if the manufacturing moves to central and South America it will increase transportation pollution. In the end there are products that are basic necessities that everyone needs. If it’s done properly it could spearhead innovation to reduce overall pollution.
I can't help noticing how J P Morgan has loomed large in financial chaos for well over a century:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1907
https://economics.stackexchange.com/questions/1798/did-jp-morgan-mitigate-the-effects-of-the-great-depression#1799
Just sayin'.
As a general, global update:
https://youtu.be/zyZUM0jYJpw
That slimy Dimon is making out like the robber baron that he is. Infuriating as he probably won’t be held accountable
I still think that guys like Dimon can be educated to a certain extent. They live and work in an echo chamber. Put him in the same room with people like Robert rather than people playing the game of monopoly and I think he will express some democratic goals. He has to reject the MAGA dog whistle, has to recognize that Russia and China are constant threats, that there is too much income inequality.
The problem with guys like him is they want to do all of the talking when they should be listening.
Irrelevant nonsense! The necessary systemic change will not come about through polite discourse with the mob captains or the godfather. Get real!
Robespierre?
Obama? Hope and Change?
That's BS. He's a guy who admits that the system needs to be rebalanced. Comes from a family of immigrants. https://fortune.com/2022/05/12/jamie-dimon-gets-brutally-honest-about-trump-democrats-and-corporate-executives-who-refuse-to-take-a-stand/
No evidence that he's a narcissist like Musk or Thiel. Speaking of Thiel, he led the run on the bank. Know thy enemy.
I ask, WHY is Dimon still the CEO of JPMorgan when his bank was directly involved in the financial crisis of 2008? He should be "behind the bars"! If not that, at least she should be REMOVED from his position for his companies involvement. He, as CEO, CANNOT claim ignorance!! Again, we have a "lack of accountability". Or, is it just the muscle of ORGANIZED CRIME?
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.
Toxic capitalism should fail; instead, the corporate politicians in both parties gobble up money and rape the regular American citizen. Our country is governed by oligarchs, many of whom want fascism to cement their power and hold on our government so they can treat the 99% as if we are peasants they can exploit to work and make more money for them.
We need democratic socialism with a few aspects of capitalism, except without the rampant deregulation or predatory monopolization and consolidation.
From onset we had a "mixed" economy. Washington, then richest man in America, built the "national road" to some of his properties in the west, now northern Kentucky and southern Ohio. He set up a welfare system in the new city of DC. Constitution set up the post office.
Our founders may not have done us a favor when they permitted failures to use bankruptcy protection. For a lot of creditors, it's legalized theft.
They also should have established a national bank.
There is no specific provision in the Constitution that set up FDR administrative law but in 1947 Congress passed the Administrative Procedure Act that establishes a "mini-Constitution" for agencies to enact regulations. Under attack by SCOTUS. Need to elevate it to Constitutional level.
Have you read "American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper" by Jacob S. Hacker? If not, I recommend it highly. One quote from the book: "The mixed economy may be the greatest invention in history."
I’m going to put that on my reading list!
Hopefully, someday we’ll have public banks working for the common good.
Truer words were never spoken.....until now!
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.
I also lost my home because of Chase Bank’s predatory lending in 2009. I am now retired and living off Social Security in my daughter’s basement
I’m very sorry for your situation Diane and do wish it could be different.
The horrible MTG declares war between the red & blue states. I think the “war” will be like the French Revolution when all of us 99% Americans rise up against the 1% and say we won’t accept the current affairs anymore. Unfortunately, I think that will take a change in the American idea that anyone can be the next Jamie Dimon or Jeff Bezos. While I believe anyone in our country has the potential to be successful, I do not think the opportunity is there for each of us to be in the 1%. To do that, you have to sell your soul to be focused on only yourself and how much you can accrue while the underlings who work and make money for you do so without good health insurance or by working multiple jobs to afford current housing and food costs.
Reading what happened to Marcie Powers and her husband is a stark reminder of what happens when greedy oligarchs take the power of our government & society.
Trump….ugh, I hate even writing his name….is the perfect example of what is wrong in our country, yet the downtrodden think he’s the ‘messiah’….because he ‘talks the talk’
What his minions don’t realize he’s the Wizard behind the curtain who wants to be the King on the throne, and oppress his fold! Money is his god, and power is his altar!
Great snark!!
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?
The problem with capitalism is just in the name -- capital means money, and capitalism values that above all else. Above people, above workers, above making a good product, etc. The motive isn’t “the community motive” like in Confucianism, it’s “the profit motive.”
The thing is is that humans are not about competition. We’re all about cooperation and kinship. A greedy prehistoric human probably wouldn’t survive, and would be shunned by the group.
In nature, greedy monkeys are often rejected from groups. Meanwhile, humans are praising people like Zuckerberg and Bezos -- our greedy monkeys -- and putting them on magazine covers.
Peace.✌️
#NationalizeTheBanks #NoMoreBankBailouts
I don't agree it is just in the name. It is as you said after that....capitalism values that above all else. I don't agree that humans are not about competition. Humans like a challenge...the reason we have games. What we need to be is smarter and more compassionate as individuals. Some are. Some aren't. The reason some people aren't so smart or compassionate...that's another topic...mental health, genes, education, abuse, lack responsibility, ethics, etc.
P.S. I probably should have said “right in the name” rather than “just in the name.” That was my bad.
I mean competitive in life. I’m not talking about in games, like Soccer or Baseball, or Capture the Flag — which are healthy competition and really fun.
I also agree that there are other factors with people being dispassionate — I would argue against genes being a factor though. It’s mostly nature rather than nurture that influences people.
Competition is competition, whether life or games. I just don't think we are all about cooperation and kinship. We are more complex than that and people are different in how they approach life, their philosophies, etc. Sounds like you are applying something from a history book about how people got together, created towns and so on. So okay. That's fine.
When we’re at our best we’re about cooperation — but often our environment pushes us away from that. There are always disagreements and healthy rivalry, of course.
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?
I expect this controlling sociopathic behavior from greedy CEOs like Dimon but Obama--OUR president! basically said he was 'all in' to protect Dimon from our pitchforks. Obama specifically protected the greedy bankers in 2009, not us!! Is this okay with everybody here???
Why aren't we all here acknowledging this point?!
Obama, like other Democrat (and even Republican) politicians, had to pay the price of admission.
He is clearly a big disappointment. His comment, quoted in Reich’s piece is revelatory of his mind set: he is a true believer in capitalism. Can anyone become president in the current system without being thoroughly " vetted" by the banks and captains of industry?
“Socialism for the banks and penury for the rest of us.”
I am so stealing this phrase! It’s a good meme. Thanks!
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.
Excellent analysis.
"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.
Yes Deborah! "Not only are these criminals not held to account, but as you illustrate with Jamie Dimon, they take advantage of chaos, and thrive."
In a nutshell the worst Orange One said it proudly : "you can grab them by the pussy when you’re famous" ( or powerful like Dimon)
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.
Andrea,
1. Jerome Powell is a Republican. 2. Have you seen the current make up of Congress? 3. 90% of Americans want gun control, 70% of Americans want access to abortion. Do see my point? We do not actually have a representational democracy in the US.
Unless we eliminate the Electoral College system, we will be hostages to donor money.
And OUTLAW gerrymandering!
Martha-- our problems will continue to plague our society until we return to a majority rule culture. To let minorities control the way we life is an upside Democracy. Boebert and Greene probable feel right at home with their feet in the air.
Andrea--We currently have a Democratic administration in Washington run by a corrupt Republican political machine fueled by Trumpism. You want to know how sick our political system is, there you have it in a nut shell.
I know that it's corporatism that capture both tribes. Not 45.
CEOs, not 45 run OUR government. 45 isn't smart enough to lead anything.
Andrea---I agree with your assumptions surrounding Trump but he isn't the problem. It's the uneducated MAGA's that won't listen to the truth. Trump holds no power if his base can finally see past his BS. How do we reach them?
As to how to reach rightwing braindead cultists? I don't know that there is any way to convince them if they haven't already. Jim Jones & Manson knew the secret, but I don't know who else does.
Do you want the brutally honest truth? They want blood and violence. That is the only language they understand. We are facing the same forces that caused the American and French Revolutions 250 years ago. The question is who would be the target.
You miss the point made in the newsletter. When Democrats cause harm on the citizenry by serving the interests of the oligarchs, the citizenry will turn to demagogues. YOU are the one Reich is trying to educate!!!
I never said anything about demagogues one way or another. Your comment is correct about the populace seeking demagogues when frustrated by their leaders but I never referred to this issue. Ignorant comment. Or are you jealous a female has a brain?
Paul--What you described in your introduction refers to the Republicans. As for my education, let's just say I had one. If Robert has anything to say to me lets start with how do I get the gray blotch next to me name to reflect a paid status.
To late to educate them, let’s try to nullify their vote for a change!!!
Dimon is too smart not to know what socialism is. This is a political talking point.
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...
Dimon loves everything that isn't for helping The People. "Socialism" is just a word greedy rich throw around making sure no one who isn't greedy rich get all the socialism they get.
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!