The Fed should have the nation’s best interest at heart. This means that in times of stagflaition, low interest money barrowing, high unemployment times, and high debt to gdp ratios, it becomes imperative that the fed flood the market with currency. If it chose to raise interest rates, by taking dollars out of the system, at this juncture, that would balloon the already high debt to GDP ratio.  Think about it like this: right now as things stand, those that hold substantial debt, the 99%, will find that once the dept is paid off at the end of the loan, the inflation will eat the profits of the loan originator. If the inflation grows quicker than compound interest accumulates, the bank looses money. This should create incentives for bankers to invest in America. If they don’t, then they shoot themselves in the foot. The fed can’t allow the interest rate to rise because it would bring the day that we would have to raise the debt limit. And we all seen how that went last time it was done. But while it is putting more dollars in the system, it is deleveraging the banks profits. From this perspective, I think the fed is doing a great job. No?  There are a lot of people loosing wealth because of the fed’s actions, but call it bitter medicine, not treason. 

The Last Nail in the Coffin of Greed

Those multi nationals would have been able to keep their position if they had not become so greedy. The sad part is that if the unemployment rate was not so high this digital revolution would have never been conceived. There are a plethora of highly intelligent individuals not able to get a job, and they are utilizing their time learning, engaging and being politically active.  Though there is a long way to go, I suggest every person who is not happy with the direction we are going to become informed. When I say informed, I don’t mean find your favorite pundit and hang on his every word. Democracy is harder work than any job I have ever had. People make intelligent arguments all the time, but when those you perceive to be intelligent vote more differently than they speak, the perceiver of intelligence is the one who suffers. There are many forms of information. As a student of propaganda, being I studied Journalism, I know that most information is as bad for the viewer as crack cocaine is for the user. Although most dot com sites are not crooked, it is more informative to get information from dot gov or dot org sites. If an organization is helpful to a community, would it not make the same sense that their information could be more helpful. The opposite of this should hold true, too.

The prosperity of the last thirty years—if you happened to be privy to it—was mostly a bribe.  While the powers that be tortured, maimed and exploited people of other nations under the banner of market fundamentalism, we were the dumping ground for all the over production that unregulated markets produce. Those days are coming to an end. There are two schools of thought being haled by pundits and policy makers throughout the ‘States. One is to neuter the social safety net in order to stimulate growth. Now, I know it may seem fairest to get rid of a government that allowed our current condition, but a dismantled social safety net will destroy the middle class. Even though I have never been part of that class, I know that a degenerating middle class is a pre-courser to a failed state. The other argument you should be able to find is one that espouses Keynesian economics. I can only tell you what I believe about the situation, but I implore you to find the truth yourself. Get your eyes out of Facebook and put them into a real book. Maul over both arguments and pick the one that you believe will suit your interests. Democracy is not a spectator sport even if you can’t vote. When people in your social-economic bracket attempt to convince you of something that does not strengthen your interests, hold them accountable. Libertarian economic philosophy is as pie-in-the-sky bull shit as socialism. They both espouse a utopia that has never existed. When the “gubment” gets out of the way, a power vacuum is created. Who do you think will fill it? 

Fear of the Unknown

As a working class citizen, loosing his economic livelihood, I protest the fact that the one percent has taken my political and economic abilities to redress my grievances. Not only have the one percent politically gagged me, but are, at the same time, economically deleveraging me. The right to collectively bargain in the market place is as important to me as the right to redress my grievances in the political realm, for the simple reason, they are both impediments to my freedom of association. It should be self evident that unchecked power manifests itself  in many forms. As the Founding Fathers were able to break the hold of consolidated, non representative power in the monarchial form, I believe this generation must take on the Founders’ cause once more. We must demand accountability by the new forms of unchecked tyranny which are multi national corporations and the one percent that reign over them. They, the one percent, must be made accountable to a nation’s will just like every one else. They can’t be allowed to hold a whole nation hostage because they feel over taxed and onerously regulated.

When the job creators use their abilities as tools for political concessions, I perceive a new, un-checkable tyranny slithering its way into the body politic. The obfuscated nature of the Founders’ remedy, being three branches of government, has left modernity with a dysfunctional government. The halls of power are congested and only accessible by truck loads of money, and until we all have truck loads of money, we are all with out a voice. Although the remedy the Founders bestowed upon us worked for the Thirteen Colonies, it no longer works for a vast majority of the people.   Where once there were thirteen points of view—articulated through the different congress men, who had to make concessions in order to secure the legislation—there are only two, and they both leave the working class’s grievances unremitted.  The thirteen different colonies, which made up the divided interests of the nation, are now morphed into two political parties, one for the employers and one for the middle class government officials. These two interests have locked out all other members of society.  

Does society really believe tyranny could only arise from political appendages? Tyrannical institutions within the private sector are as detrimental to personal liberties, as kings who tax but don’t represent.  The one percent, I perceive, are using their job creating ability as leverage in the political arena. Only after securing their ability to produce without American labor, through the acquisition of foreign markets, do they talk about market insecurities. Only after they used their control of demand, which is their hiring and firing ability here in the ‘States, and their control of supply, which is cheap, undemocratic, foreign labor, do they command their political party to be obstructionally partisan. It should be no surprise that consumer expectations are low when unemployment is high. If the job creators really wanted to spur consumption, they only need to hire more employees. Having one politically astute sector of society control supply and demand is as detrimental to personal liberties as a king and his scepter. When the creators of jobs don’t like the democratically imposed regulations, they fire their employees, sowing the seeds of political unrest. This formula—one that has been used many times before—secures their party’s reign in two to four years. At least in the past when employers flexed their muscles in such a way, the act had adverse effects on the employer. The cost benefit relationship of the employer’s decision weighted more on the cost side of the scale.  

Because of the new phenomenon called globalization, I feel more silenced than I have ever felt. Through domination of global market shares, the one percent has taken my market right to boycott their brands, moving their factories out of the market they politically support. They are able to leverage the American economy because they live off foreign revenues. While they demand more freedom against American accountability, in the form of deregulation and free mobility of capital, they ask for more sacrifice from every one else.  

The market place of ideas is compromised when unpopular ideas are able to find safe harbor in other markets. How can Americans boycott corporate excesses, when multi nationals are able to survive without American patronage? A vast majority of Americans no longer have a say over the conditions corporations wish their employees to toil under. This unprecedented leverage at the disposal of corporate power is the harbinger of unchecked tyranny.   Foreigners, who have not my liberties, choosing to prostitute their labor, should not affect my ability to protest American working standards. This new manifestation of power needs to be diligently eradicated. As the Founders destroyed the power of the crown eleven score fifteen years ago, we must set forth to do the same to the new, un-checkable scourge of American liberty. If the new world power structure is not accountable to anyone but the stock holders, then government—as  people of the 20th century knew it—is  obsolete and redundant. We need to wake up, or, like corporate down sizing, our political voice will be down sized, too. 

To the enablers of the one percent, here is a little wisdom Benjamin Franklin would have us not forget: "Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power." And always remember: “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary [economic] Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

I protest this new form of political usurpation for one simple reason.  I’d hate to wake up one day and find that the Neo-American pledge goes something like this:  I pledge allegiance to the logos of the One Percent of America, and to their profits for which I toil. One party, above the law, indivisible from Wall Street’s interests, and their justice is for all.