American Exceptionalism: Endless War, Parasitic Financialisation, Wage Stagnation, and Oligarchy

Guest Post by Jesse

“The financial system itself continues to exhibit dangerous and erratic behavior; the stock market is rigged and Wall Street is a parasitic wealth transfer operation; commodity prices plummet; junk bond defaults double; derivative exposures remain in the dark; community banks are gobbled up; and the holdings of the mega Wall Street banks become ever more concentrated, with just six banks now controlling over 90% of derivatives and 40% of deposits.”

Wall Street On Parade

There will be the usual movement to ‘blame the victims’ in this, the ‘gullible’ American people who do not wish to face the facts.  This is how it always goes, and it works because it is easy to despise the other guy, or just hate ‘the other.’

Most people are busy and working hard to make ends meet. They obtain their view of things from ‘the news media’ for the most part.

When was the last time you saw any rational discussion of any of these charts in a newspaper or on television news program?

And if the ever did present such a chart, it would be to show it and then have a ‘strategist’ from the Democratics and a ‘strategist’ from the Republicans argue about it, relying heavily on spin, emotion, and rhetoric, perhaps backed up with some ‘paid for’ studies funded by oligarchs and their think tanks.

The American people are being fed a steady stream of lies and half-truths from a captive media, and for the most part the privileged achievers keep silent to protect their own interests, to ‘go along to get along.’  They rationalize this by burying themselves in the details of their own professions.

If you hide the facts from people, and lie to them constantly to promote the interests of one or more of the powerful oligarchs and the moneyed interests, how can you blame the people for falling for the lies? Where is the truth to be heard?

Even now, if one puts up data such as this, the resulting prescriptions for change are all too often just pre-programmed slogans fed on an almost daily basis by talk radio and ‘fair and balanced’ mouthpieces for big money.

The only ‘tough talk’ we hear is to get tougher on the weak and the unfortunate.  And when anything like this comes out, it is time to blame the victims and feed them more lies and slogans.

Have we ever seen a more ridiculous presidential election that this one?  The Republican candidates are for the most part stooges for big money and special interests, demagogues, legacy pledges, and jokes, and the Democratic frontrunner is a recycled Wall Street party boss who has become a multi-millionaire from the payments received for showing up at parties hosted by the moneyed interests.

And what are the prevailing prescriptions for the future:  more war, more tax cuts, less right to vote and organize, more consolidation of industry and power, and more austerity.

People are confused, angry and frightened, and they have been whipped into such a state by a determined minority that is fed on lies and a few who fund those who feed them those lies, and who appeal to the worst emotions among us for their own selfish greed and lust for power.

I wish these charts included the percentage of the population incarcerated in prison, the number of children living in poverty, and the number of wars of discretion to ‘save the rest of the world.’

What went wrong?  Follow the money.  The American republic has been waylaid and twisted for the very obvious benefit a powerful few, and is in dire need of genuine political and financial reform.

These charts are from Jeremy Grantham in Give Me the Good News, with a hat tip to Zerohedge.