FOUR HORSEMEN - DOCUMENTARY
NOTES - To: 44:22
Ruling elites seek to maintain power by controlling the 'cognitive map' / what we think. What matters is what is left undebated.
1971 USA
off Gold Standard
adopted:
fiat = So Be It {Latin}
$, £ + € = govt fiat
>only govt has power to issue fiat currency
>Banks 'create' it thru lending
Fiat money = currency that derives its value from government regulation or law.
Adoption of fiat currency = greatest growth of supply of money in HISTORY.
Who benefits:
1>those that issue $$ (govt)
2>banks
3>Also benefit:
>companies & individuals who get this money early b/c spend it prior increase in prices by $$ in circulation
inflated prices = increase gains for asset holders (real estate or shares) - WITHOUT improvements > 'speculative bubble'
Fiat currency system just redistributes money from the BOTTOM to the TOP (the monied elite). Gulf b/w rich & poor widens.
Fiat currency system + fractional-reserve banking system = compounding DEBT faster than you can produce to support debt = DEBT SLAVERY
Result: > for every $1 of GDP in #USA, create something like $5.50 debt
Of all the money in the WORLD today, 97% of it is DEBT!!!!!!!!!!
America has existed on the assumption that resources can be expanded. But resources limited. Cannot expand pie (like you could in early American history); must divide pie. America not prepared.
Last 40 years, capitalism has taken an extreme form. Goes back to economist Milton Friedman (Chicago School), Ronald Reagan, Thatcher etc.
encouraged:
>HUGE amounts of debt
>privatisation
>smaller 'govt'
>bigger military (so bigger spending)
>deregulation (esp. corporations = Gods)
Milton Friedman (Chicago School) neo-classical approach beat the classical approach to economics & became framework for today's capitalism.
Classical = favours less govt interference, more personal autonomy & recognition that cannot function w/out natural resources
neo-classical =
>dismissive of natural resources
>govt to rule economy & solve social probs
>free market to distribute wealth
neo-classical school emerged about 100 years ago, due to vested interests desire to protect assets
neo-classical mathematical models & assumptions divorced from reality vs classical models, based on what actually *is*
Neo-classical models of economics, championed by Reagan & Thatcher, have been used to legitimise financialisation of the global economy.
1932 aftermath of stockmarket crash Glass–Steagall Act protection intro'd to separate ordinary high street banking from investment banking.
Glass–Steagall Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass%E2%80%93Steagall_Legislation
1999 Clinton repealed Glass–Steagall Act
Banks could take ordinary depositors money & speculate on it = 'casino'
Unfettered banker gambling resulting from 1999 Glass–Steagall Act repeal pushed global financial system to near collapse.
Banks with balances & debt obligations larger than GDP of entire countries, banks had become too big to fail. West unprepared for financial meltdown. Govts reeling.
Banks: you have to bail us out. What are you to do with tens of millions of ppl who have lost everything in bank accounts.
Bank to govt: cautions you'll have revolution on your hands. Urged: borrow money. Create it out of nothing & give it back to us. $700-b needed from US Congress.
2008 banking crisis exposed Western economic system divided as:
>socialism for the rich (ie govt bailing banks ...( & therefore obligating the taxpayer to pay off this borrowing to bail out banks)) &
>capitalism for the poor.
Taxpayer paying 4 misplaced speculation of bankers = economy not serving human = human in perpetual service 2 amoral financial organisations.
$8.5 trillion bail-out.
Post 9-11 Federal Reserve Head, Alan Greenspan slashed interest rates to encourage lending / bankers needed cash flowing into global pyramid scheme
Newly created money entered housing market, creating unprecedented inflation. Huge home loans. Double-income a necessity.
#USA Banks got together to exploit minorities /charge more for loans. Wells Fargo targeted urban minorities. Predatory lending.
*Not about race; it's about PROFIT.
#USA Lobbyists for banking industry amount to x5 per Congress-person, to persuade them to pass legislation favourable to financial industry.
Democracy = uneven playing field: the devastated poor cannot afford lobbying equal to that of the banking industry.
Ideological control, the cornerstone of Washington-Wall Street corridor:
>finance good
>more finance better
>unregulated finance is best
Q. Who controls Washington?
> Lehman Bros collapse - 80% population against bail-out
> Notwithstanding, Congress passed bail-out
A. Banking.
Not good reflection on democracy when a group of companies says 'our interests are more important than national interests'.
How can corporations control Washington in a democracy?
>Campaign contributions
>Lobbying
>American political structure
= flawed democracy
Fed Reserve to regulate Wall Street but ...
>Wall Street has veto over who is head of Fed Reserve
>Regulators are from banking industry itself
As long as this stands, this is not regulation.
It is *deregulation* (but called 'regulation', using Orwellian doublethink)
Democracy is 'government by the people'
Plutocracy is 'government by the rich'
Equal voting rights movement early 20thC abolished system where rich have more votes than poor, but lobbying negates that.
Lobbying has reduced American political system to mere clearing house for the concerns of the rich.
Goldman Sachs machine =
>use profits to buy influence in WA
>to change laws / easier to make money on Wall Street
>use to buy influence WA
Famous for claiming it did God's work, Goldman Sachs = one of most influential investment banks in world.
Golden sachs alumni often occupy positions of great influence in governments and central banks.
2008, 1mth prior collapse, Goldman changed GS status from investment to commercial (meaning eliglble for state protection).
= socialism for the rich
Riding the 'big short' (selling soured securities) in 2008, Goldman Sachs made BILLIONS of dollars & they're back BIGGER & RICHER.
*** Don't think I really know what a 'big short' is. Short selling & collecting insurance might not be the whole story? ***
Short selling explained: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/shortselling.asp
Money also made on insurance; so it's a WIN, WIN, WIN, WIN etc http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/24/goldman-sachs-emails-big-short_n_550547.html
LINK TO DOCUMENTARY:
COMMENT
Other (non-banking) example lobbying:
********* Sheldon Adelson & wife spent around $70 million in 2012 trying to defeat #Obama. http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/02/cory_booker_biggest_democratic_recipient_of_pro-is.html *********
While the world was in financial meltdown in 2008, I barely noticed. It just didn't interest me.
Watching this documentary has been a catch-up for me.
Got through only about three-quarters of a hour, so I'll have to make the time to watch the rest while it's still fresh in my mind.
The link to the political lobbying article above (Senator Corey Booker, Democrat with the biggest pro-Israel donation -- that mentioned $70-million spent by the Adelsons in effort to prevent Obama gaining the Presidential seat -- was just a random article that was topical today. But it's a good fit on the subject matter of democracy, money and lobbying (even though it is outside of the banking subject).
Was blown away by the amount of money the Adelsons spent.
The term 'big short' isn't clear to me. All I know is there's money to be made from lending and selling and insuring (I think). And no matter what, it's a win-win for the banker ... especially if when it all goes belly-up, the banker is covered by a government bail-out.
An article I read yesterday fits in with this capitalism gone rogue theme:
"The world's richest person (Bill Gates) has a personal wealth of $78.7 billion. This is higher than the (nominal) GDP of 130 countries ..."
The details about how much the wealthy few have compared to the rest of the world are sobering.
Will revisit the article and have another read, as it takes me a while to absorb information.
Looked at a heap of other odds and ends, but I think this is it in relation to capitalism, currency and banking.
*****
Just did a quick edit, as the lobbying link I'd placed in the documentary summary could maybe have been confused for having appeared in the documentary (it didn't). Anyway, it's been shifted to avoid confusion.
SUMMARY - PART 2 - HERE.
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EU-NATO IMPERIALISM ❌ 
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