Economic Fascism, Corporatism, and the Move to Anarchy in the U.S.

 

By Victor Sperandeo with the Curmudgeon

 

Disclaimer:

The views expressed herein are those of Victor Sperandeo.  Readers are invited to email your comments and/or questions to the Curmudgeon at ajwdct@gmail.com who will forward them to Victor.

Discussion:

In my humble opinion (IMHO), U.S. residents primarily live under “economic fascism” in conjunction with “corporatism” (defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “The control of a state or organization by large interest groups.  ‘Fascism was the high point of corporatism’).

The U.S. government does not directly “own the means of production,” as in true socialism, but they most definitely control it.  Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini demonstrated the government does not need to “own businesses,” when it can dictate what the business can and should do.  Thereby, it is with “control” -through regulations, dictates, and laws - that enables government to have businesses do what it wants. This is a more efficient way of indirectly controlling the means of production.

Anarchy Definition and Example:

Definition:

1a] absence of government; 1b] a state of lawlessness or political disorder due to the absence of governmental authority the city's descent into anarchy; 1c] a utopian society of individuals who enjoy complete freedom without government

2a] absence or denial of any authority or established order.

IMHO, the U.S. future will be anarchy (as demonstrated by the numerous protests and looting after the murder of George Floyd) unless our government changes significantly.  Here is an example “call for anarchy,” which is likely to be followed by more of the same:

The Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement’s August 25, 2018 manifesto “Burn Down the American Plantation” is a call for a Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement.  It was written and published to inspire a new generation of revolutionaries.  The last two sentences in the Introduction says it all: “Our historical mission is clear. We must burn down the American plantation once and for all.”                                                             

Left vs Right Wing within the Political Spectrum:

Political scientists and other analysts say the left includes anarchists, communists, socialists, democratic socialists, social democrats, left wing libertarians, progressives, and social liberals. Movements for racial equality and trade unionism have also been associated with the left.                                                                                                                                       

Those same folks regard the right as including conservatives, right-libertarians, neoconservatives, imperialists, monarchists, fascists, reactionaries and traditionalists.

I believe the actual spectrum of left vs right should be related to government reach, such that we classify based on: HOW MUCH government vs. HOW LITTLE government?

The left is characterized by total government control, as in communism, socialism, (Mussolini’s) Fascism, dictatorship, or NO LAWS (e.g. Mad Max style, “survival of the fittest living,” which results in anarchy).   

Some may relate to this as “communal living.” much like the pilgrims created in the 1620’s. But at least they had some rules to live by.                                                                                                                   

The U.S. was structured as a “limited government” or slightly “center - right” on this political scale, which was guided by a strict set of rules/laws called the U.S. Constitution.
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Historical Example of the Nazi Party:

The Nazi Party in Germany, officially known as the “National Socialist German Workers’ Party,” was a mass movement political party that advocated “National Socialism.” Under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, the party came to power in Germany in 1933 and governed by totalitarian methods until 1945. This is an example of the left (maximum government control) not the right.  The confusion lies in the misuse of what a political entity is called.

Recent Protests Demonstrate Anarchy:

Clearly,  the recent Seattle, WA insurrection calling for “an autonomous zone” is an example is of no government, which would be replaced by a communal standard based on anarchy.  From a June 11th article titled: Rebellion in Seattle by Jonathan Kirk:

Protestors in the largest city of Washington State have formed what they are calling a “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” that has put up its own barricades and signs that read, “You are now leaving the USA” within the 13th precinct of the city. After nearly a week of battle between the Seattle Police Department, the National Guard, and activists associated with Antifa and Black Lives Matter, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan announced that the police would be abandoning the precinct. As Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best explained, “This is an exercise in trust and de-escalation.”

Immediately following this announcement, protestors took the police barricades and repurposed them to form the autonomous zone. The protestors apparently even offered free food and medical care within the zone, along with creating its own garbage disposal system. However, the autonomous zone quickly turned anarchic when some activists within the zone stormed Seattle’s City Hall demanding the mayor’s resignation.

Following on to this example was the Nashville, TN protests, which suggest the same. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said on June 12th that he won’t tolerate the creation of an “autonomous zone” in the capital of Nashville, like the one demonstrators have established in Seattle. We will see?  Brian Trusdel of Newsmax reported:

"As demonstrations continue, we will continue to protect Tennesseans' right to peaceful assembly, while also reassuring citizens that lawlessness, autonomous zones, and violence will not be tolerated,” Lee said in a statement prior to a scheduled protest. “Further, Tennessee law expressly prohibits camping on state property not expressly designated as a campground area, and that law will be enforced."

The warning came hours ahead of a planned “Free Capitol Hill” protest, one of numerous demonstrations and riots that have occurred across the country.

The latest protest in Louisville, KY has resulted in at least one death. On Saturday night June 27th a man opened fire from the edge of a protest area killing one person before “several people” fired weapons in the park.  Activists have assembled at Jefferson Square Park in Louisville for more than a month to protest police brutality. Video posted online Saturday shows a man in shorts and a tank top aiming a gun in the direction of tents set up in the park and opening fire. Videos on social media show protesters fleeing the area and, in some cases, diving and crouching behind nearby parked cars, tents and trees as shots are fired.

Sadly, these riots and innocent killings may continue UNLESS the people that fund and support them get arrested.

Defund (or Eliminate) the Police Department?

There have been many cries throughout the U.S. to “Defund the Police” after George Floyd was killed by a police officer.  If that were to happen, lawless would certainly prevail resulting in chaos and anarchy. 

Minneapolis, MN, where George was killed, is at the epicenter of this movement. On Friday, June 26th the Minneapolis City Council unanimously approved a proposal to eliminate the city's police department, marking the first step toward establishing a new "holistic" approach to public safety.

Image Credit: Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images

The Minneapolis police force, which is largely white and has long struggled to reflect the racial makeup of the city, has come under even greater scrutiny as public cries to defund the department have gained traction among elected officials. 

Under the proposed plan, the city would eliminate the existing police department and replace it with "a department of community safety and violence prevention, which will have responsibility for public safety services prioritizing a holistic, public health-oriented approach."

Victor’s Opinion:

The proposal of “ending the police” is fine if you wish to return to a society that would look like the America of the 19th century. To protect your family and yourself people congregated into groups, tribes, and gangs.  It was a “dog eat dog” type of society.  The Gangs of New York movie and book depict the rise and fall of 19th century gangs in New York City, prior to the domination of the Italian-American Mafia during Prohibition in the 1920s.  It depicts some very turbulent times, e.g. the New York City draft riots in 1863, criminal influences including river pirates and a very corrupt political establishment. Does anyone seriously want to revert to those times?

This also begs the question of why Americans should pay State Income Taxes without a police force? The exchange of giving up some of your rights and money (i.e. tax dollars) for security, is necessary for a civil society. That is what the police are for! Without police and fire departments for protection why would anyone pay taxes?

An example of why I think laws “should change” to create a much more tranquil society are the recent deaths of two African Americans:

·      On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was killed due to excessive police force in Minneapolis, MN.  He was suspected of passing a $20 counterfeit bill.  Yet, he may not have known the bill was not legitimate legal tender.  (Several years ago, the Curmudgeon received a counterfeit $20 bill from an ATM cash back purchase at a supermarket and attempted to use that $20 bill to buy gas.  The gas station owner (Asian Indian man) did not even call the police, but instead warned me.  The exact same circumstance could have happened to George Floyd, who I say died tragically for no cause!).

·      On the night of June 12, 2020, Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old African-American man, was fatally shot by an Atlanta, GA police officer who was responded to a complaint that Brooks was asleep in a car blocking a restaurant drive-through lane.  He was drunk, but not driving when the police arrived.  Yet he was shot while running away after scuffling with the officers.

There are too many suspected or minor crimes like those above, which most people perceive as harmless.  To others, they are “police harassment” or “racial profiling,” if the suspect is of color or another race.  When such suspects resist arrest much bigger problems result.

Millions of laws are created, so the “State” can arrest you if they choose to…. for any reason it wishes (or makes up). I suggest you read Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent, by Harvey Silverglate to understand how we are all guilty of some crimes every day.

Questioning Systematic Racism in the U.S.:

The crises we are in was sparked by the call of Racism, often referred to as “Systemic Racism”  If that is the case, how did Barack Obama get elected and then re-elected President of the U.S. in 2008 and 2012, respectively?  In 2008, Obama got 69.5 million votes, while black voters were only 16.9 million votes?  Contrast that to Ronald Reagan’s 2nd Presidential election victory in 1984 when he received 54 million votes. Adjusted for the U.S. population in 2008 and 1984, Obama got more votes.  So, I cannot see any rational person seeing racism in the U.S. as “systemic”?

A Lesson to be Learned from the KGB:

Where are we on the enemy’s scale of America coming to an end as a nation? It is enlightening to read a KGB account of the stages leading to a total collapse.

From Yuri Bezmenov, a former KGB agent who defected to Canada in 1970 and was interviewed by G. Edward Griffin (author of “The Creature From Jekyll Island“) in 1984, and who brilliantly outlined the stages of planning the take down of western civilization by the KGB (“The Four Stages of Ideological Subversion”):

The KGB’s first stage is “Demoralization,” estimated time 20 years; stage 2 is “Destabilization,” estimated to be up to 5 years; the third stage is the “Crises.” (this where we are today, in my view); and finally, the 4th stage pf “Normalization” or the conquest.   The latter is when “the tanks roll in” as when the Russians invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968 [1.].

Note 1. On August 20, 1968, the Soviet Union led Warsaw Pact troops in an invasion of Czechoslovakia to crack down on reformist trends in Prague.  Recalling the 1956 uprising in Hungary, leaders in Moscow worried that if Czechoslovakia carried reforms too far, other satellite states in Eastern Europe might follow, leading to a widespread rebellion against Moscow’s leadership of the Eastern Bloc.  After much debate, the Communist Party leadership in Moscow decided to intervene to establish a more conservative and pro-Soviet government in Prague.

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Reference:  A ~7 minute video clip interview with  Bezmenov where he elaborates on the “Four stages of Ideological Subversion” is highly recommended.  (Curmudgeon: It is well worth your time!)

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The Frankfurt School Plan to Subvert Western Civilization:

In the plans to overturn Liberty, Capitalism, and the U.S. Constitution, the 1923 think tank named “The Frankfurt School” was very influential to this day.  It was part of the communist party in Germany. 

Their aim was to bring Western society to such a “state of hopelessness and alienation” that it breaks down. Its past proponents have included some big names – Herbert Marcuse (his concept of “repressive toleration”), Erich Fromm, Theodor Adorno (“The Authoritarian Personality”), Jurgen Habermas and Bertrand Russell (“The Impact of Science on Society”). The Frankfurt School was disbanded in 1953 but continues as a global network.

Many say that the Frankfurt School had formulated a secret 11-point plan to subvert western civilization. The 11 points of principal recommendations are:

                        1.          The creation of racism offences (which has been a highly effective strategy)

                        2.          Continual change to create confusion

                        3.          The teaching of sex and homosexuality to children

                        4.          The undermining of schools' and teachers' authority

                        5.          Huge immigration to destroy identity

                        6.          The promotion of excessive drinking

                        7.          Emptying of churches

                        8.          An unreliable legal system with bias against victims of crime

                        9.          Dependency on the state or state benefits

                   10.          Control and dumbing down of media

                   11.          Encouraging the breakdown of the family

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U.S. Income Inequality Reaches New Heights:

The Fascism/Corporativism we live in today comes from the partnership of large corporations and the U.S. government.  Extreme income inequality is one result of that.

The earnings of corporate America is about $2 trillion, while they pay ~$200 billion in taxes or 10% (~1% OF GROSS U.S. GDP). As most of us know only too well, many large corporations pay ZERO taxes. Nearly 100 Fortune 500 companies effectively paid no federal taxes in 2018, according to a report by ITEP. That infamous list includes Amazon, Netflix, IBM, Haliburton, Chevron, and DowDuPont.

Compare that to the average person who pays ~16% in federal income taxes.  But the gap between corporate and individual income taxes is much worse. As an example, the average single American contributed 29.6% of his earnings to three taxes in 2018—income taxes, Medicare, and Social Security.

The above dichotomy in taxes paid, COUPLED with the Fed’s never ending super easy monetary policy, is why we have huge and growing income and wealth inequality in the U.S.  And it gets worse by the Fed pumping up equity markets which benefits public companies, their executives, and insiders.  Workers living paycheck by paycheck don’t realize any of that largesse.

By effectively providing CORPORATE FAVORS (i.e. endless liquidity gifts) the Fed greatly contributes to income inequality. Yet it is never mentioned as part of the problem. Why not?

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Conclusions:

I believe that America is lost, especially when compared to how our nation was conceived by our founding fathers.

Stability and order are based on laws not politics or favoritism!  In many ways, shapes and forms, the U.S. is in chaos.

Not only lost, but in any honest evaluation, the U.S. is deteriorating monthly.  While I’ve attempt to explain what has occurred, I hope this helps in your plan to survive the end of what once was the greatest nation in history.

Also, the U.S. is in a recession, heading towards a possible depression in GDP. The National Bureau of Economic Research Business Cycle Dating Committee said the U.S. economic expansion peaked in February 2020 after a record 128 months, and we have been sliding into a pandemic-driven recession since.   The announcement pointed to the "unprecedented magnitude of the decline in employment and production, and its broad reach across the entire economy."  No economic growth next year is a high probability. 

Yet the equity market’s singular focus is the amount of Fed (and global central bank) “money printing,” which exponentially increases liquidity and thereby boosts prices of stocks and other “risk assets.”  Market participants (we can’t seriously call them “investors”) assume that this remarkable and seemingly endless creation of money “out of thin air” is some sort of “magic currency,” which brings no inflation and has no other costs?

End Quotes:

In Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky wrote: “From the moment an organizer enters a community, he lives, dreams, eats, breathes, sleeps only one thing, and that is to build the mass power base of what he calls the army.”

Alinsky also wrote: "The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution."  

In other words, the cause-whether inner city blacks or women--is never the real cause, but only an occasion to advance the real cause, which is the accumulation of power to make the revolution.

Finally, this quote may explain how America has got to where it is today:

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

from Ephesians 6:12 King James Version (KJV).

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Stay healthy, be calm, content and stay safe. Good luck and till next time…...

The Curmudgeon
ajwdct@gmail.com

Follow the Curmudgeon on Twitter @ajwdct247

Curmudgeon is a retired investment professional.  He has been involved in financial markets since 1968 (yes, he cut his teeth on the 1968-1974 bear market), became an SEC Registered Investment Advisor in 1995, and received the Chartered Financial Analyst designation from AIMR (now CFA Institute) in 1996.  He managed hedged equity and alternative (non-correlated) investment accounts for clients from 1992-2005.

Victor Sperandeo is a historian, economist and financial innovator who has re-invented himself and the companies he's owned (since 1971) to profit in the ever changing and arcane world of markets, economies and government policies.  Victor started his Wall Street career in 1966 and began trading for a living in 1968. As President and CEO of Alpha Financial Technologies LLC, Sperandeo oversees the firm's research and development platform, which is used to create innovative solutions for different futures markets, risk parameters and other factors.

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