Wall Street, Power & Democracy
Posted on October 31st, 2011
Nalliah Thayabharan
Capitalism is a confidence trick, a dazzling edifice built on paper promises, gambling, bets and speculation. Wall Street doesnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t make or produce anything. The Wall Street however attractive it may appear is built on paper. Wall Street only gambles and bets and speculates.
Modern day bank robbers are at Wall Street but they wear grey suits and not masks. Speculators, propagandists and financiers of Wall Street are given some unfair advantage over the average consumers and taxpayers and the cumulative effect of the people watching selfishness prevail over the public interest has been an undermining of the publicƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s trust in the present US government. ThereƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s no question the Wall Street is rigged against the average consumers and taxpayers. The Wall Street has a lot more information. Wall Street jerry-rig the system so that Wall Street always win. If the Wall Street loses trillions, the US Treasury will bail the Wall Street out so it can go back and do it again.
50 trillion dollars in global wealth was erased between September 2007 and March 2009, including 7 trillion dollars in the US stock market, 6 trillion dollars in the US housing market, 8 trillion dollars in US retirement and household wealth, 2 trillion dollars in US individual retirement accounts, 2 trillion dollars in US traditional defined benefit plans and 3 trillion dollars in US nonpension assets.
There are trillions dollars of new money taken again from Americans to make deals and hand out outrageous bonuses. And when these trillions run out Wall Street will come back for more until the dollar becomes junk. The value of the US dollar declined very significantly during the last 70 years. The value of the US dollar in 1940 was worth 2,000% more than the value of the US dollar now.
The top 6 US banks had assets of less than one fifth of US GDP in 1995. Now they have two third of US GDP. The financial crisis was created by the biggest US banks to consolidate power. The big banks became stronger as a result of the bailout by the US Treasury. The big banks are turning that increased economic clout into more political power.
Oligarchy is the political power based on economic power. And itƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s the rise of the Wall Street in economic terms, that itƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢d turn into political power. And Wall Street then feed that back into more deregulation, more opportunities to go out and take reckless risks and capture trillions of dollars.
Wall Street only has the lobbyists. Since the heads of Wall Street and their representatives are afraid because they donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t have the substance or the arguments, they will not come out and debate with the people who occupy the Wall Street.
The political and economical leadership of the US has chosed to cartel profits and transformed the US economy to serve the colluding and unlawful oligarchy. The US banks are borrowing money at near zero interest from the US government, then lending it back to the US government at even mere fractions higher interest than they are paying. The net interest margin made by the US banks by lending the money back to the US federal government in the first 6 months of 2011 is 210 billion dollars.
Due to the oligarchsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ rapacious looting and their purchase of a politically protected luxurious lifestyle, the people of the US are on the road to permanent serfdom under a police state. The democracy was not given to the people of the US on a platter. It is not theirs for all time, irrespective of their efforts. Either the people of US organize and they find political leadership to take this on, or they are going to be in deep trouble.
October 31st, 2011 at 5:52 pm
completly agree with you Nalliah
Great article
It is sad 1% rule 99%
I fully support this. I am happy that i atteneded one of the wall street rallies 2 weeks ago because i know they are doing it for most of us ( 99%)
I am proud of the good work they are doing
My field is IT and I worked for a very rich Bank in Investment Banking for 11 years and I know how these people make money
unimaginable Unbelivable
October 31st, 2011 at 6:34 pm
Talking of WALL STREET, just a small story, to make future Stock Market Investors to open their eyes.
I use to play with the Stock Market, buying and selling shares. It was fun at the begining. Then I encountered, in about five instances, the Companies that owned the Stocks, did a forward SPLIT, or a REVERSE SPLIT, and then, just for an example:- My 500 shares worth say $2.00 a share, on a REVERSE SPLIT became 30 shares, totally valued at just at $12.00. So my 500 shares which I bought for $1000.00, is now 30 shares worth $12.00. SO WHAT HAPPENED TO MY $988.00 ???
WALL STREET GUYS IN GREY SUITS, HAVE MELLIFLUOUS TERMINOLOGY:- REVERSE SPLIT, FORWARD SPLIT, AND I BELIEVE THEY ALSO HAVE FORWARD SPLIT AND BACK SPLIT, AND SOMMERSAULTS TOO.
I had over 5,000,000 Shares of XXX TECHNOLOGIES, valued at a little over $1500,00. They did a REVERSE SPLIT, and my Shares came down to just 57 SHARES, totally valued at $.17CENTS. SO MY $1500.00 JUST DROPPED DOWN TO JUST $0.17CENTS. This is appearing in my statement for the last one and a half years. I WILL NOT INVEST ONE CENT ON BUYING SHARES ANYMORE. THAT IS THE END. WHOM TO COMPLAIN ? JUST GRIN AND BEAR.
As the author of this article quite truly says, THE BANK ROBBERS AT WALL STREET ALL WEAR GREY SUITS.
I saw in the News papers in Sri Lanka, requesting Expatriates to INVEST THEIR HARD EARNED MONEY IN THE STOCK MARKET. That is an invitation to Suicide. Playing with the Stock Market is A GAMBLE. Repeat, IT IS A GAMBLE.
It is a Cardinal Sin, even to suggest, and make the Expatriates to invest their hard earned monies in the STOCK MARKET. My advice to them is to INVEST THEIR HARD EARNED MONIES IN THE NATIONAL SAVINGS BANK, ON FIXED DEPOSITS. It is a million times safer.
October 31st, 2011 at 7:04 pm
Agree Susantha
or better to invest in Bonds
no stocks please
I also lost $$ on this do not want to think about it
but your acoountant can help you to claim it as an expense ( loss) you can forward the loss for 3 years I guess
November 1st, 2011 at 12:55 am
Tell this to Raj Rajaratnum
November 1st, 2011 at 1:46 am
Good article by Nalliah, exposing the dangers of Capitalism. The weaknesses can be exploited by nasty people such as Raj Rajaratnam. Weaknesses need to be investigated and loop holes plugged and tighter regulation needed if Capitalism is to work. The Gap between the rich and poor brought about by Capitalism is excessive. Capitalists appear to squeeze out the middle class to maximise their profit, exposed by Michael Moore This may be an opportunity to investigate on new economic systems. Communism has not worked either
November 1st, 2011 at 4:34 am
“There is no calamity greater than lavish desires, no greater guilt than discontentment and no greater disaster than greed”
– Laozi
“Greedy desire is endless and therefore can never be satisfied”
– Buddha
November 1st, 2011 at 7:27 am
Thanks Jimmy ! I will try to claim my lost monies.
I believe the Interest on Fixed Deposits just now, is more than the Bonds.
November 1st, 2011 at 1:18 pm
Very good points made by Prabas.. I agree Marxism has not worked and will not work due to human nature, mainly driven by self interest and greed. However, I feel Capitalism need to change and evolve, learning from experience.
November 1st, 2011 at 7:38 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VebOTc-7shU&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw&feature=player_embedded
November 1st, 2011 at 7:49 pm
The Story of Your Enslavement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbp6umQT58A&feature=player_embedded#!
November 1st, 2011 at 8:02 pm
America: Freedom to Fascism-Full Length Documentary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUpZhhbKUBo&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fforeclosewallstreet.com%2F&feature=player_embedded
November 1st, 2011 at 9:29 pm
Whether we like it or not, the world is a capitalist place. We have to patch it up and run with it. There is no economic system to challenge capitalism worldwide.
In Sri Lanka, Tamils and Muslims have totally embraced capitalism. This is why a disproportionately larger number of businessmen are Tamil and Muslim. Only the Sinhalese resist it or had any soft corner for socialism. Thanks to this view, Sinhalese have lost the grip on business ownership. And staged 2 bloody socialist revolutions. 1971 and 1989 “revolutions” killed about 50,000 Sinhalese, double of what the war killed. Sinhalese must embrace capitalism as much as Tamils and Muslims have embraced it. Otherwise it will be the Sinhalese who will suffer. Crimes of LSSP, CP, JVP in indoctrination is unforgivable. Thank god they have been wiped out.
Some non-Sinhalese secret agents have been preaching Sinhalese not to take up business activities and business ownership. These secret agents should be eliminated. Their aim is to keep Sinhalese away from business ownership so that non-Sinhalese can dominate business. There are no worse terrorists than them.
Capitalism should not be an extremist dog eat dog version. A suitable capitalist system is the only way this country can sustain itself.
JVP has to change its ideology in line with the times. If the need is more jobs, more money in the hands of their segment, more land, more this or that, fight for that within the capitalist system. Identify the real enemies. Shift economic resources using the capitalist model. JVP supporters are poor, unemployed, landless, etc. not because of the capitalist system but because of certain racist practices and persons in the country.
e.g. Sinhalese are essentially prevented from owning land in the north, Sinhalese are prevented from economic activity and land ownership in the north, Sinhalese cannot enter university from 5 districts.
If the JVP plans further campaigns, it must take these elements out instead of attacking its own kind for a change of system. With the change in JVP financiers from Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea, China to capitalists, this change may be visible, unless it becomes a NGO tool.
November 2nd, 2011 at 8:38 am
Capitalism is not intended to benefit the greedy on the backs of employees, consumers and tax payers although that has historically been a dark reality.
Wall Street shouldn’t be a free pass for those expecting entitlements with little or no personal investment although this too has become an ugly development during the past three decades.
Wall Street has undue influence on the US government policies and this situation reflects a failure of democratic representation for the middle and lower classes, or the other 99 percent Americans.
November 2nd, 2011 at 9:23 am
Robust financial markets don’t imperil capitalism. But in 2008 the US government was compelled to replace private risk takers in the financial markets with government capital so that money and credit flows wouldn’t stop, precipitating a depression.
The US government’s actions weren’t the start of government distortions in the financial sector, but the result of 25 years of continous such distortions. In the early 1980’s, modern financial sector began to escape reasonable important regulations of the marketplace. The US government gradually adopted a “too big to fail” policy for the Wall Street firms, saving lenders to failing businesses from losses. As a result, these Wall Street firms became impervious to the vital market discipline that the threat of loss provides.
Adding to the problem, Wall Street created financial instruments that escaped other reasonable limits, including gentle constraints on speculative borrowing and requirements for the disclosure of important facts.
The financial industry eventually posed an untenable risk to the US economy—a risk that culminated in the trillions of dollars’ worth of government bailouts and guarantees that the US government scrambled starting in late 2008.
Even as the US banks and markets seem to heal, lenders to financial markets continue to understand that the US government would protect them in the future if necessary. This implicit guarantee by the US government harms economic growth, because it forces good ones to compete against bad ones.
November 3rd, 2011 at 12:29 am
Well said Dilrook.The world has now accepted the Capitalist system. However, safe guards need to be in place to prevent rougues cheating the system. In USA, we had Raj Rajaratnam, Maddoff and several other instannces of robbers playing the system. We also have the Capilalists driving off the middle class. So appropriate safe guards and regulation need to be in place, along with Capitalism working in a framework of high moral standards, such as in Singapore. Rougue traders have even operated in Singapore In Lanka, cultural and religeous factors may influece, Sinhalse not accepting business and commercial fields like other ethnic groups. Non-Sinhalese and Sinhalse secret agents have been preaching Sinhalese not to take up business activities and business ownership and these groups need to be identified and stopped. Giving up desires is not a good idea to be promoted. Developing competitive spirit and will to survive is essential, rather than aim for extinction.
I am in favour of a well regulated Capitalist system, working within a framwork of high moral standards and values.
November 3rd, 2011 at 1:42 am
Dilrook Ref: to your comment on 1st Nov. Can you tell me what are the crimes done by LSSP and CP to Sri Lanka.
I never heard so far from any educated person that LSSP or CP done crimes to Sri Lanka. Most Sri Lankans regard Dr. N.M, Dr. Colvin R De Silva, Philip Goonawardena,Leslie Goonewardena, Robert Goonawardena, Dr. S.A Wickramasinghe, Peter Keunaman and leftist members as well educated, intellectuals and gentlemen. Hope you will explain!
November 3rd, 2011 at 6:44 am
“Competition is a sin”
John D. Rockefeller
Several people assume that the Wall Street is equal to capitalism. Real capitalism requires a looser. The establishing your own business needs resources that others already own. It’s a race to own.
But Wall Street thinks differently. For Wall street competition is a sin.