TigerSoft Freedom News Service 7/9/2011
www.tigersoft.com
Stock Market Predictions
America's Undeclared Class War:
Plutocracy Is Winning.
When Will There Be A
Back-Lash?
The first American Civil War was caused by the obscene
greed and unlimited power of Southern
slave-owners. The second
civil war could be caused by the obscene
greed, callousness
and unlimited power aspirations of the
Super Rich who seem to think
Americans can be turned into peons
working on their new corporate
plantations.
By now, most of us understand that America has
the most inequality of any major
industrial country. Taxes on
the rich
are the lowest in 80+ years. See "The Starkly Bleak Consequences of
Accelerating American
Inequality." Readers here also understand
that the President (despite his populist
rhetoric and accusations
that he is a "Socialist") is
peculiarly unwilling to fight for the poor
and working people when it comes to
standing up to Corporations,
Wall Street or demanding renewed taxation
of the Rich, despite all
his campaign pledges of 2008. (See
November 15, 2010:
http://www.tigersoftware.com/news_updates_to_tigersoft_blogs_.htm
)
"La majestueuse égalité des lois, qui interdit au
riche comme au pauvre de
coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain." Anatole France
“There’s class warfare, all right,” Mr. Buffett
said, “but it’s my class, the rich class,
that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
"The rich are tolerable only so long as their
gains appear to bear some relation to
roughly what they have contributed to society." John
Maynard Keynes
It is high time to continue the
discussion here. If we do not
respond soon, the American
experiment in Democracy will surely
be destroyed by Plutocracy.
Part 1 here is the first of a
new series of eight articles to be
posted on Plutocracy's
Take-Over America and How This
Dangerous Trend Might Still
Be Reversed.
PART 1 - WALL STREET NO
LONGER NEEDS MAIN STREET
- WALL STREET IS CELEBRATING PLUTOCRACY'S
APPARENT VICTORY
- WARNINGS OF CIVIL UNREST
- THE SUPINE SUPREME COURT's HIGH TREASON
by William Schmidt, Ph.D. - Creator of Tiger
Software.
America's Undeclared Class War
The June Jobs' Report Was Awful
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Today's Jobs' Report was terrible.
It was tragic. But it understates the dire Truth out there.
State
and Local Government jobs are being shed just when the Private Sector is failing the
most. All the while, advanced Public Education is being priced out of reach for
millions. A
permanent underclass has been created in America. Boasting that we live in a
democracy that
offers opportunity for all rings very hollow now. .
WALL STREET NO LONGER NEEDS MAIN STREET
Watching Wall Street;s June rally, many economists
expected June to show much stronger job
creation by the private sector. These economists fail to understand that Wall Street
does not need
Main Street anymore. Stocks are mostly owned by the rich. American workers are
superfluous
as producers, as consumers and as investors. The rich are happy with overseas'
investments and a
rising market fueled by the Fed's cheap money programs. Laying off American workers
can be very
profitable! And an "army of unemployed" serves to keep wages down.
WALL STREET IS
CELEBRATING PLUTOCRACY'S VICTORY
Right now, corporate plutocracy rules America as never before. The poor and the
middle
class are as powerless as ever before in the US. Wall Street is celebrating
their victory and
the absence of any credible threat, so total is their control of the American political
process.
But their celebration may be premature. Americans are waking up. Protests are
on the rise.
By the time protests come to Wall Street itself, as in 1920 and 1970, a bear market will
probably
be in place. The recent rally seems to have been fueled by Professionals driving in
premature
short sellers. Professionals are notoriously quick to jump ship in locking down a profit.
r
Employers hired a mere 18,000 workers in June, the Labor Department said,
the fewest number in nine months and far below economists' expectations for a gain
of 90,000. The unemployment rate rose unexpectedly in June to 9.2 percent, the highest
since December, from 9.1 percent in May. Officially 14.1 million Americans
are unemployed. 6.3 million have been unemployed for more than 6 months.
Whereas the economy needs to add 125,000
jobs a month just to keep up with the
growing
population, it added only 18,000 in June. And the
net jobs added numbers
for April was revised downward to 217,000 and for May was revised downward from
54,000 to a mere 25,000. More than 8,000,000 jobs have been lost since the
"Recession"
started in December 2007. The US now has fewer jobs than it did a decade ago.
Manufacturing employment changed little in June. Following gains totaling 164,000
between November 2010 and April 2011, employment in this industry has been flat for
the past 2 months. In June, job gains in fabricated metal products (+8,000) were
partially offset by a loss in wood products (-5,000).
Construction employment was essentially unchanged in June. After having fallen
sharply during the 2007-09 period, employment in construction has shown little
movement on net since early 2010.
In June, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls
decreased by 1 cent to $22.99.
In June, average hourly earnings of private-sector
production and nonsupervisory employees declined by 1 cent to $19.41.
Employment in government continued to trend down over the month (-39,000). Federal
employment declined by 14,000 in June. Employment in both state government and local
government continued to trend down over the month and has been falling since the
second half of 2008.
ECONOMIC RECOVERIES
IN PAST RECESSIONS
Source: NY Times 7/8/2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/09/business/economy/job-growth-falters-badly-clouding-hope-for-recovery.html
The System Is Failing Tens of
Millions
How long are the unemployed expected to wait
peacefully for just a job?
We already see Depression like numbers in many areas of the country if we count those
those who have given up looking for work and so are not counted in the official numbers or
those who
have taken part time jobs but want full-time jobs are also not counted in the official
"U-3" methodology.
The less publicized "U-6" numbers better represent the magnitude of the current
tragedy.
U-6 Unemployment - June 2011
California: 22.0
Nevada: 23.7
Michigan 20.3
Los Angeles County 24.1%
The October 2007-early 2009 Stock Market Crash was steeper than the same first 18 months
after September 1929. Paul Krugman wrote that after the Lehman Brothers collapse
“key economic
indicators—world trade, world industrial production, even stock prices—were
falling as fast or
faster than they did in 1929-30. The 2009 plunge was stopped by loaning a trillion
dollars to
the biggest banks, by massive Fed buying of these banks' "toxic assets",
give-away-low interest rates
and the continued pay-out of unemployment, Social Security and Medicare benefits plus
a pitifully small Public Works stimulus.
Now the resurgent Congressional Republicans demand these economic shock absorbers
be cut back, and the Super Rich Bush tax cuts not be rolled back. This would seem to
invite another
1937-1938 like Stock Market Crash if the Fed raised rates or stops buying US Debt
securities
with its paper money.
Abraham Lincoln's Warning
about Corporate Plutocracy
"I see in the near future a crisis
approaching that unnerves me and causes me
to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era
of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will
endeavor to prolong it's reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the
wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.
*Source: http://books.google.com/books?id=WJBJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA118&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false
)
Monopoly Finance Capitalism
Monopoly Finance Capitalism is my way of referring to the main characteristics of the
current
financial system: They are:
1) Fewer and few huge global banks dominate consumer and business finance.
Two years after Lehman Brothers failed, the "too big to
fail" banks have grown
much bigger. See
others' comments.
2) Big banks can now be both commercial investment banks, brokerages and consumer banks.
In 2000, the banks got Congress and the President to abolish Glass-Steagall,
despite prescient warnings this would cause a financial melt-down in 10 years.
Little has changed. The
banks wrote most of the 2010 Financial "Reform" Law.
3) Big Bank are now global multinationals.
Foreigners have a bigger and biger stake in them and they eagerly invest
overseas.
Their loyalties are not to the US or its people.
They would be happy exporting all American jobs if it would maximize their profits.
4) They comprise much of and dominate most Government Policy-Making:
Example: Goldman and Federal
Reserve Board, Commodities Regulation, US Treasury.
5) They are among largest campaign contributors to Democrat and Republicans running
for the Presidency and Congress.
Example: TARP
recipients spent $77 million on lobbying and gave $27 million in
campaign
contributions in 2010.
Example: Goldman Sachs was
Obama's biggest campaign contributor.
Is
Goldman Obama's Enron? No, it's worse!
6) Their policies, rather than those of Main Street America, have become US government
policies and laws.
Examples - Free Trade instead of
Protection of American Manufacturing.
- The abolition of the short-selling on down-tick rules.
- The creation of highly leveraged Short ETFs.
- Highly leveraged Commodity Speculation allowed.
- "Slap on the wrist" punishment for defrauding investors".
- No big banker has spent a day in jail despite their Criminal Fraud.
- No capping of obscenely high big bank CEO pay.
MORE JOBS SHOULD COME
FIRST!
As a result of the control that the Big Banks have
over policy-makers and the US economy,
neither President Obama nor the House Republicans have a clue about what to do about
creating the desperately needed TEN MILLION JOBS needed in the US. That is the
real
economic Problem, not the size of the deficit.
All the White House and the Republicans can do is to fight over which group of poor people
will be called on to sacrifice, in the federal cutbacks they plan. Taxation of the
Super Rich is off
the table. Reduction of overseas military spending is off the table. Closing
huge corporate
loopholes and ending government subsidies for oil companies are off the table. Only in
Washington DC
could the rich and powerful show such a total disregard for what is happening in Main
Street
America.
The Class War Will Be Reciprocated.
Abolish
Medicare? Deny unemployment benefits? Reduce Social Security? Cause a
Credit
Default by US over tax increases on the Super Rich? A lot of pundits believe
Republicans
are playing with fire and will lose control of the House of Representatives
in
2012. See
Republicans
Experience Voter Blowback, Run Away from GOP Budget
GOP
braces for Medicare blowback - Yahoo! News
Freshman
Republican warns of 'backlash' if cuts are too deep
Republican
lawmakers nervous about public backlash against meddling with Medicare
BTL:Populist
Backlash Against GOP Anti-Union Legislation,
Freshman
Republican warns of 'backlash' if cuts are too deep
Latino
Backlash Against GOP Hardliners
Essay:
Ryan Budget Blowback Should Scare the GOP in Iowa,
The 150,000 protesters in Madison who
occupied the State Capital for weeks in the
middle
of winter should be a warning to the Plutocrats.
A
few days ago, Zbig Brezezinski, my old grad school professor, surprised me.
He appeared on WNBC TV with his daughter, Mika the show's hostess and boldly
told Americans what they already know but the Corporate Mass Media moguls never
allow to be heard: namely, that America is sliding towards class war.
Listen to him here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjfRAP8hFOU
His thesis was that when the economy was growing, it was tolerable that the rich were
paying themselves vast, obscene sums of money. But now, with the working middle
class gutted
and shrinking, with tens of millions permanently unemployed through no fault of their own
and jobs
being outsourced as fast as ever, it is flat-out immoral that the rich refuse to be taxed
more.
I was a little surprised at his outspokenness. And I was surprised that we agreed.
He had been
a failed cold warrior. He was an ardent supporter of the war in Viet Nam.
And he failed to
predict the end of the Soviet Union. And, it still smarts, he only gave me an A-
when I wrote a
seminar paper showing that "economic revisionism" was going to force the
Communist Party
to have a much reduced role in managing East European economies. I remember that he
put
approving check marks only where I made points that he agreed with.
Still Brezesinski did teach me many things, not least of which was that Marxism was a lot
more than
propaganda used to control large populations, it was also a realistic way, perhaps all too
realistic,
a way to view economic and social contradictions. Its theme, of course, is that
class contradictions
govern historical development. Brezinzki believes it is not too late to make the
Super Rich in the
US to wake up and see that they have created the World's most economically divided
country.
To this, there will be eventual 'blowback". The class war will be reciprocated.
This is essentially
what Warren Buffet warned several years ago.
James
Carville, Democratic TV pundit said the same thing on June 6th. Only 25%
of Americans
think the country is
going in the right direction. On March 8th, even the Wall Street Journal
acknowledged "America's
coming civil unrest."
Rebellion, Civil War
or Accommodation by The Plutocrats
The
Declaration of Independence presents the dilemma we are now in::
"...(A)ll men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
— That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish
it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their
Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established
should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath
shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right
themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of
abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce
them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such
Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Plutocracy or A Compassionate
Meritocracy?
Eight Reforms Are Necessary or there will be another
Civil War in the US:
1) Deny the Supreme Court The Right of Judicial Review of
a Law of Congress.
2) Abolish the Senate
3) Officially make Corporations "Non-People"
4) Enforce Sherman Anti-Trust Laws, especially in Mass Media.
5) Tax the Super Rich like IKE did.
6) Make the Government the Employer if the Private Sector Fails.
7) Overseas Military Bases and the Military Budget must be
drastically reduced.
8) Free Public Education.
#1 Deny the Supreme Court
The Right of
Judicial Review of a Law of
Congress.
A year ago, the
US Supreme Court supinely acceded to Plutocracy the unlimited right to
corruptly buy out the entire US political system. Instead of battling for the
individual and
the consumer, it ruled in Citizens United vs.FCC, absurdly that corporations are people
and citizens of the US, and thus have the same first amendment rights as real people do.
Any attempt to limit corporate campaign contributions abridges those rights. The
Supreme
Court has paved the way for big multinationals to buy any politician they want by making
as big a campaign contribution they wish. And there is nothing anyone can do about
this!
This is disastrous for Democracy. It is disastrous for America. Obama should
have accused
the High Court of TREASON!
A recent CNN poll found that 86% of Americans think that elected officials are mostly
influenced
on issues by major campaign contributors. That 86% includes pretty much everyone but those
like the Roberts 5 who benefit from this corrupt system.
What political shil of the plutocrats in Congress will ever stand up for keeping jobs in
the
US and for raising wage, health and work standards here? Obama and the Democrats
were
already without a moral compass and a backbone. Congressional
staffers says their bosses'
cowardice in the face of corporate greed has just gotten much worse. The degradation of
wages for
most Americans since Reagan will now accelerate. Corporate logos will soon be placed
on the
American flag instead of stars.
The absurd doctrine that Corporations are Citizens is only the latest evidence of TREASON
on THE HIGH COURT. Last month the SUPINE COURT prohibited the use of Class Action
law suits to recover small fees that corporations have stolen from them. In AT&T Mobility
LLC v. Concepcion
The shocking truth is that the Supremely Supine Court has no Constitutional right
to protect
Plutocracy by declaring unconstitutional a law of Congress. This ugly truth is never
taught in
school or mentioned on the corporate media. To repeat: the US Constitution did was
not to give the
Supreme Court the right to overthrow a law made by the People's representatives in
Congress and the President. It seized, misappropriated and stole this power from the
American People.
This issue is not new. The Supine Supreme Court usurped the right of judicial review
in 1801
with their Marbury vs Madison decision. Judicial review was deliberately NOT put
into the
US Constitution. Thomas
Jefferson made this clear
over and over again in his lifetime. Think
about this. In the Marbury vs Madison decision, the Court claimed it could overthrow
any law
it wanted to even though the law had been enacted by Congress and signed by the President,
both popularly elected. This was a breach of English Common Law. It was
USURPATION.
Such Judicial Usurpation has
been abolished in England in 1688.
Giving the Courts this power was patently undemocratic. Robert Yates,
who wrote about the
Federalist Papers at the time. presciently warned the Courts' judicial review would let
them
"mold the government into almost any shape they wished." The ultimate
arbiter of a law is
the People. Thomas Jefferson warned further:
"To consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions is a
very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism
of an oligarchy...(T)heir power (is) the more dangerous as they are in office for life
and not responsible, as other functionaries are, to the elective control."
"The Constitution on this hypothesis is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the
Judiciary"
(See Thomas Jefferson's Reaction to Marbury v Madison )
"The Constitution on this hypothesis is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the
Judiciary"
(Thomas Jefferson)
Appointed for life, the Supreme Court, has long represented the rich and
powerful. The oldest
Republicans there are Scalia (75), Kennedy (75) and Souter (72). Mandatory
retirement at 70
would
go a long way to solve the problem!
The
Supreme Court has long been the protector of big corporations. In 1886, the Supreme
Court
struck down 230 state laws passed to regulate corporations. This was the year of the
famous
Santa Clara County vs Southern Pacific Railroad, wherein the Court declared that persons
were
corporations under the 14th Amendment, except that where as citizens have responsibilities
and
social obligations, corporations had only rights and privileges.
Between 1890 and 1910, only 19 of the 288 cases arising out of the 14th Amendment dealt
with
the
civil rights of Black Americans.
Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust law in 1890 to limit the trend towards corporate
monopolies. That did not stop the Supreme Court in finding new ways to benefit
corporations.
"Between 1894 and 1905, a host of anti-labor rulings were issued by the court. Before
this time,
it was common under state law for the state to limit the number of hours a person was
allowed
to work. In 1894, the court struck down the eight-hour shift for mechanics and labor in Low
v. Rees
Printing. Colorado eliminated its eight-hour day for mining and manufacturing by House
Bill 203.
In 1895, in Ritchie v. People, the eight-hour day was removed for women garment
workers. Lochner v.
New York eliminated the ten-hour day for bakers in New York in 1905. In 1895, the
court ruled that
the Sherman Antitrust Act could be used against interstate labor strikes because such
strikes were a
restraint on trade. In 1895, the court upheld a monopoly of 98 percent of the
country’s sugar protection
in U.S. v. E.C. Knight Company ruling that the Sherman Antitrust Act applied only
to commerce
and not to production." (Source: http://www.spiritone.com/~gdy52150/colawp2.html
)
Nothing changed in 1918 when the world was supposedly made safe again for Democracy.
"The Keating-Owen Child Labor Act was struck down in 1918 by the Supreme Court which
ruled
that goods produced by child labor did not fall under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act because
it only
applied to commerce. Between 1920 and 1924, the court granted corporations the
protection of the 4th
Amendment ruling that government officers seizing corporate documents violated the
provisions against
unreasonable searches in Silverthorne Lumber v. U.S and FTC v. American Tobacco.
This decision
came just as investigations into profit mongering by arms makers during WWI were heating
up.
Likewise, the decision provided protection for those corporations that signed cartel
agreements with I.G.
Farben and other German corporations during WWII."
(Source: http://www.spiritone.com/~gdy52150/colawp2.html
)
FDR,
of course. battled the "nine old men" on the Supreme Court in the 1930s after
they struck
down
several New Deal economic recovery programs that Congress had voted for
overwhelmingly.
Pending before them were state minimum wage laws that most predicted they would have
vetoed had not FDR threatened to increase their numbers in early 1937.
World
War II. "One good example of corporate having the rights of a person without
the obligations
was
during WWII when individuals could be drafted and forced to serve their country. Initially
after the
bombing of Pearl Harbor the army was overwhelmed with volunteers. However, throughout five
long
years
the army relied on the draft to maintain the army's strength, but the critical factor was
a shortage
of
supplies." Corporations could and did refused to produce war munitions. Profits
came first.
Key
supplies like gasoline were held back. Price-fixing was common. To make matters
worse,
"America faced the armies of the Third Reich supplied by products built by American
corporations...
(M)ore than three hundred corporations did business with the Third Reich during the war.
Further Historical Reading
Google offers us Republican Senator Pettigrew's, Triumphant Plutocracy
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Howard Zinn A
People's History of the United States
Duane Lockard The
Perverted Priorities of American Politics
Beards’ Rise
of American Civilization
Kendrick and Hacker’s History
of the United States Since 1865
John Chamberlain’s Farewell
to Reform
Richar Matthew Pettigrew Imperial
Washington: The Story of American Public Life from 1870 to 1920.
Free-Silver Republican
Anti-Imperialist
League founder
to be continued...
