BRIC or BRICs is an acronym that refers to the fast growing developing economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Why do you need to know this?
The BRIC is currently holding an economic summit in YEKATERINBURG, Russia . A summit that we asked to be invited to but, were turned down. It was reported today by the AP that Russia is trying to persuade the other countries to replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency. If this happens it will throw the United States into an unimaginable state of economic chaos. The end of the dollar’s reign as the world’s reserve currency will be the beginning of a terrible period of economic and political decline in the United States. Our status as a super power will be gone, hyper inflation will rival any in the world's history, and we will become all but, a third world country. If the dollar is no longer the world's reserve currency, the dollar could lose over 60% of it's value. . . . kiss our standard of living and the middle class good bye. And what is to follow will be very, very painful.
From Chris Hedges of Truthdig: " If they succeed, the dollar will dramatically plummet in value, the cost of imports, including oil, will skyrocket, interest rates will climb and jobs will hemorrhage at a rate that will make the last few months look like boom times. State and federal services will be reduced or shut down for lack of funds. The United States will begin to resemble the Weimar Republic or Zimbabwe. Obama, endowed by many with the qualities of a savior, will suddenly look pitiful, inept and weak. And the rage that has kindled a handful of shootings and hate crimes in the past few weeks will engulf vast segments of a disenfranchised and bewildered working and middle class. The people of this class will demand vengeance, radical change, order and moral renewal, which an array of proto-fascists, from the Christian right to the goons who disseminate hate talk on Fox News, will assure the country they will impose."
China has already replaced the U.S. as Brazil's number one trade partner. We are being squeezed out of the worlds economy. And probably for good reason. We've been in control for so long and we've blown it. Beginning with the Reagan Administration we have done all we can to destroy our manufacturing base and replace it with a service industry. Rather than making things we can sell, which produces actual wealth, we consume on credit, work at jobs that only requiring the skill to ask "Do you want fries with that?" , and make just enough $ to remain in debt without filing bankruptcy. Which by the way, only big business can do and still profit by doing it. Add to this the theft that is taking place at the Federal Reserve. Over the past year they have quietly printed over $9 trillion (with a t) and refuse to tell oversight panels who is receiving that money. Remember that The United States GDP is only 13 trillion. This makes the Bush / Paulson $750 billion bank heist look like a lemonade stand robbery. Obama and his administration isn't doing anything to stop this, if anything they are facilitating this financial breaking of America. If the Fed isn't stopped, what little value the dollar might retain after it is no longer the world's reserve currency, will be decimated. The United States could literally be bought for pennies on the dollar, and social services will be sold to private corporations. Police, Fire, and Postal service will be for profit entities and all highways will become toll roads, cats will chase dogs, rats and snakes will marry, boogers will eat 4 year olds . . .
Let's all hope I'm over reacting.
DaG out
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
How it all began . . .
Ever wonder how we got here? How did a strong middle class with an American Dream get crushed into indentured servitude? What or who came up with the business first, individual second political, legal, and financial priority? Who or what influenced or inspired the creation of the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, the Cato Institute, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Accuracy in Academe, and other powerful organizations that began paying off handsomely in the 1980s? How is it that a previously ridiculed Milton Friedman's "free market-no tariff" capitalistic society, became the mantra for the Reagan Administration and future administrations? Who's responsible for the "hands-off business" philosophy that got us into this the unregulated debacle and corporate greed that have contributed to the bankrupting of our country?
Let me introduce you to former conservative corporate lawyer and supreme court justice . . . Louis Powell.
In 1971 Powell wrote a memorandum or a conservative manifesto if you will. In an extraordinary prefiguring of the social goals of business that would be felt over the next three decades, Powell set his main goal: Changing how individuals and society think about the corporation, the government, the law, the culture, and the individual became, and would remain, a major goal of business.
He had been a board member of Philip Morris between 1964 until his appointment in 1971, and had acted as a contact point for the tobacco industry with the Virginia Commonwealth University. Through his law firm, Hunton Williams Gay Powell & Gibson (later just Hunton & Williams) he represented the Tobacco Institute and the various tobacco companies in numerous law cases.
Though Powell's memo was not the sole influence, the conservatives and corporate activists took his advice to heart and began building a powerful array of institutions designed to shift public attitudes and beliefs over the course of years and decades.
Here are some of the highlights of Powells memorandum that outlined the steps necessary for corporate America and the conservative ideology to take precedence over individual rights, social safety nets, and progressive ideology :
1. Balancing of Faculties Perhaps the most fundamental problem is the imbalance of many faculties. Correcting this is indeed a long-range and difficult project. Yet, it should be undertaken as a part of an overall program. This would mean the urging of the need for faculty balance upon university administrators and boards of trustees. (Balancing, Mr. Powell? Isn't that a nice word for "quotas" something you despise about affirmative action)
2. A staff of scholars (or preferably a panel of independent scholars) should evaluate social science textbooks, especially in economics, political science and sociology. This should be a continuing program (This is why our students text books no longer include mentions of labor unions, political science and why Civics is no longer taught in our schools.)
3. The national television networks should be monitored in the same way that textbooks should be kept under constant surveillance. This applies not merely to so-called educational programs (such as "Selling of the Pentagon"), but to the daily "news analysis" which so often includes the most insidious type of criticism of the enterprise system. Whether this criticism results from hostility or economic ignorance, the result is the gradual erosion of confidence in "business" and free enterprise. (Really? I thought conservatives were against a "fairness doctrine" Oh I get it! You're only against it when the left wants it.)
4. Reaching the campus and the secondary schools is vital for the long-term. Reaching the public generally may be more important for the shorter term. The first essential is to establish the staffs of eminent scholars, writers and speakers, who will do the thinking, the analysis, the writing and the speaking. It will also be essential to have staff personnel who are thoroughly familiar with the media, and how most effectively to communicate with the public. (Rush, Hannity, and O'reily etc. etc ).
5. The news stands -- at airports, drugstores, and elsewhere -- are filled with paperbacks and pamphlets advocating everything from revolution to erotic free love. One finds almost no attractive, well-written paperbacks or pamphlets on "our side." (Now we see the flowing blond hair of Ann Coulter and handsome face of Joe Scarborough. )
At the time Powell wrote this memo, academia in America was decidedly more liberal. Once corporate America followed the steps laid out by Powell, politicians like Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton, and Bush 2, and our legislative branches began to dismantle all the things that allowed the middle class to prosper. And what's really sad is they did it with the majority of the middle class's blessing. Many many lower middle class folks vote for those politicians who consistently vote against their best interests, and for the interests of big business.
Example: Newspapers didn't used to have just business sections, they had labor sections as well. Few of us remember those days but it's true. Monopoly ownership of our media outlets put an end to that.
The same type of methodology has convinced a large number of Americans that private for profit health care insurance companies provide better coverage than would a single payer or a universal medi-care plan. Their media propaganda has convinced so many of us that we don't want a government bureaucrat to come between us and our doctor, all the while ignoring the fact that currently our insurance company comes between us and our doctors.
Back to Powell: Even though he and I are on opposite ends of the political and societal spectrum, I have to agree with his premise. All he left out of his blue print was the bribing of elected officials via lobbyist.
DaG Out
Let me introduce you to former conservative corporate lawyer and supreme court justice . . . Louis Powell.
In 1971 Powell wrote a memorandum or a conservative manifesto if you will. In an extraordinary prefiguring of the social goals of business that would be felt over the next three decades, Powell set his main goal: Changing how individuals and society think about the corporation, the government, the law, the culture, and the individual became, and would remain, a major goal of business.
He had been a board member of Philip Morris between 1964 until his appointment in 1971, and had acted as a contact point for the tobacco industry with the Virginia Commonwealth University. Through his law firm, Hunton Williams Gay Powell & Gibson (later just Hunton & Williams) he represented the Tobacco Institute and the various tobacco companies in numerous law cases.
Though Powell's memo was not the sole influence, the conservatives and corporate activists took his advice to heart and began building a powerful array of institutions designed to shift public attitudes and beliefs over the course of years and decades.
Here are some of the highlights of Powells memorandum that outlined the steps necessary for corporate America and the conservative ideology to take precedence over individual rights, social safety nets, and progressive ideology :
1. Balancing of Faculties Perhaps the most fundamental problem is the imbalance of many faculties. Correcting this is indeed a long-range and difficult project. Yet, it should be undertaken as a part of an overall program. This would mean the urging of the need for faculty balance upon university administrators and boards of trustees. (Balancing, Mr. Powell? Isn't that a nice word for "quotas" something you despise about affirmative action)
2. A staff of scholars (or preferably a panel of independent scholars) should evaluate social science textbooks, especially in economics, political science and sociology. This should be a continuing program (This is why our students text books no longer include mentions of labor unions, political science and why Civics is no longer taught in our schools.)
3. The national television networks should be monitored in the same way that textbooks should be kept under constant surveillance. This applies not merely to so-called educational programs (such as "Selling of the Pentagon"), but to the daily "news analysis" which so often includes the most insidious type of criticism of the enterprise system. Whether this criticism results from hostility or economic ignorance, the result is the gradual erosion of confidence in "business" and free enterprise. (Really? I thought conservatives were against a "fairness doctrine" Oh I get it! You're only against it when the left wants it.)
4. Reaching the campus and the secondary schools is vital for the long-term. Reaching the public generally may be more important for the shorter term. The first essential is to establish the staffs of eminent scholars, writers and speakers, who will do the thinking, the analysis, the writing and the speaking. It will also be essential to have staff personnel who are thoroughly familiar with the media, and how most effectively to communicate with the public. (Rush, Hannity, and O'reily etc. etc ).
5. The news stands -- at airports, drugstores, and elsewhere -- are filled with paperbacks and pamphlets advocating everything from revolution to erotic free love. One finds almost no attractive, well-written paperbacks or pamphlets on "our side." (Now we see the flowing blond hair of Ann Coulter and handsome face of Joe Scarborough. )
At the time Powell wrote this memo, academia in America was decidedly more liberal. Once corporate America followed the steps laid out by Powell, politicians like Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton, and Bush 2, and our legislative branches began to dismantle all the things that allowed the middle class to prosper. And what's really sad is they did it with the majority of the middle class's blessing. Many many lower middle class folks vote for those politicians who consistently vote against their best interests, and for the interests of big business.
Example: Newspapers didn't used to have just business sections, they had labor sections as well. Few of us remember those days but it's true. Monopoly ownership of our media outlets put an end to that.
The same type of methodology has convinced a large number of Americans that private for profit health care insurance companies provide better coverage than would a single payer or a universal medi-care plan. Their media propaganda has convinced so many of us that we don't want a government bureaucrat to come between us and our doctor, all the while ignoring the fact that currently our insurance company comes between us and our doctors.
Back to Powell: Even though he and I are on opposite ends of the political and societal spectrum, I have to agree with his premise. All he left out of his blue print was the bribing of elected officials via lobbyist.
DaG Out
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