Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Welcome to the Nuthouse: How Private Financial Fiat Creates a Public Farce

Today I present a deeply insightful guest essay by frequent contributor Zeus Yiamouyiannis, Ph.D.


Nothing succeeds like failure when you are a big bank. We’ve already seen that. Too many articles have already been written about that.

Heads, the big banks win through their hugely profitable derivatives and other fake wealth vehicles on the way up the phony growth curve.

Tails, you, the citizen, loses as you are forced to redeem this toxic trash for real money in the form of government bailouts and Federal Reserve purchases as fake value collapses.
“O, the inhumanity, O the injustice.”

Hey, we get it. You can stop pounding the drums. Bring on Act II: “The current anti-capitalist farce and its riotous effects.”

Capitalism turned on its head

What happens to functioning capitalism when its core operating principles of value and money, risk, private property, profit, supply and demand, price discovery, transparency and accountability, productivity, and exchange of worth can selectively be erased on the whim of self-interested, politically connected players?

What happens when every standard of the game is turned upside-down by rule-rigging fat cats and then cravenly excused by international governments, prosecutors, and regulators? You get a leaky economic charade riding on a sea of debt bailed out with “expert” psycho-babble, high-level cheerleading, and government assurances that sound more each day like sick punch lines to bad jokes:
• “Deficits don’t matter.”
• “The recession has ended.”
• “The weak dollar is good for trade.”
• “Debt just needs to be ‘restructured.’”
• “We just need more government stimulus spending.”
• “Federal zero interest rate policies (ZIRP) help everyone.”
• “Unemployment is down.”
Enough of the minstrel show and its official nonsense. Here is the real deal on the current corporate/government war against capitalism:

Farce #1: “Market value” and “free markets” have become a joke.

In order for “value” to have financial value in the free market it, 1) must have real worth to someone else, and 2) must be freely chosen. The whole point of a market is that people choose according to their desires and needs, not yours. No one is entitled to a profit.
That’s what “market value” and “free market” mean. Other people, known as “the public,” interactively determine what your asset, good, or service is worth. You may think something is financially worth a lot. If others do not, it’s not worth squat.

If you can merely create private fiat by assigning your own value to your “assets” and products and then force others to buy them, there is no valid market value or free market. It is simply financial dictatorship.

Farce #2: Private, self-assigned, fake value is being traded for public money at 100 cents on the dollar.

Even basic monetary standards for public exchange of value no longer apply. Now big banks have been given the executive go-ahead to self-assign value to their assets at any price they choose. This is called “market to model” (i.e. profitable lying with complicated mathematical formulas).
This violation of capitalism comes not only in refusing to allow the market to determine price of assets, but in forcing the public through government capture to pay for “impaired private assets” with “real” public money at 100 cents on the dollar!

This is nothing more than the exchange of publicly accepted money for worthless, private, counterfeit crap.

Farce #3: Printed money is backed by nothing.

However, what “value” does that public money have? What is the current U.S. dollar tied to? Nothing of worth. It refers to no credible public asset, good, or service. The Treasury and the Fed are just printing money, period.

The abstract future ability of the U.S. to pay off an exponentially increasing debt amid a long-term contracting economy is not even close to being a plausible substitute. If that money was invested in infrastructure, perhaps a case could be made, but can you name even one project that the 800 billion dollars of “stimulus spending” has funded?

In order for money to be a credible marker of exchange it must be tied to an asset, good, or service that has collectively established worth (i.e. commodities, present and future national productivity, or local networks of exchange of services and goods).

Current money needs to become rebased in things that produce value, that preserve and enhance present and future life. At bottom, neither banks nor governments are doing that, and if anything they seem to be working hard together to kill off both broader prosperity and free market capitalism.

Farce #4: We have a “free” enterprise system dominated by monopolies that force people to buy inferior goods and services at exorbitant rates.

Exhibit A: “Health” care: U.S. health “insurance” is dominated by regional monopolies that are notorious for denying treatment and charging double what the rest of the world charges. What do we get for that? We get a record number of uninsured citizens, and health results (infant mortality, etc), which are near the bottom, rather than the top, of industrialized nations.

The U.S. health care system is also possibly one of the most inefficient in the world in delivering services, wasting some 750 billion dollars per year in unnecessary spending, including hundreds of billions of dollars per year in excessive administrative costs.

“The best health care system in the world”? Hardly. Maybe if you are rich or have generous subsidized benefits.

Even then, you are not immune to hospitals that cut safety corners to save on costs, and both slash pay and increase work hours for the people treating you. Think about it. Medical error is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S, killing some 200,000 people per year.

Exhibit B: Military industrial complex boondoggles: The United States is currently spending almost as much on its military as the rest of the world combined.

What kind of value are we getting for that? We’ve gotten pointless wars built on politically expedient lies, that have lasted longer than any wars in modern history, that have cost trillions, and that have made us less secure.

Farce #5: High-level financial crimes, no matter how egregious or widespread, are not being prosecuted.

Instead, corrupt and fraud-ridden organizations like Countrywide, Goldman-Sachs, Bank of America, JP Morgan, and Citigroup, get bought up and/or pay a small percentage of their ill-gotten gains to settle civil suits in which they do not admit fault.

The leaders of these anti-capitalist organizations (Anthony Mazillo, Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein, et. al.) still walk away with enormous compensation, after having ruined their companies and tanked the world economy. When they have to hire legal representation, they do it at the stockholders’ expense, adding insult to injury.

There are probably millions of forged documents, involved in “fraudclosure”, the pervasive property assignment control fraud that includes all the big financial players. Companies and citizens have brought civil lawsuits, but these are taking time.

There has been negligible government investigation, much less criminal prosecution. Here you have millions of cases of the very foundation of private property, clear ownership, being decimated by rampant, obvious fraud, and you do nothing?

Oh, I forgot, you extend the big banks a reprieve in the form of yet another settlement, this time with States’ Attorney Generals (basically a 25 billion dollar slap on the wrist for trillions of dollars of interconnected fraud). What does it take for law enforcement to do its job?

What effect does this have? It screams, “Crime pays!” It destroys the morale of hard-working, law-abiding citizens, and it keeps zombie banks not only alive and kicking, but prospering on the backs of citizens.

It sinks the global economy even more by encouraging financial criminals to double-down on the profitable crime that got them their unreal returns in the first place.

Where do you think that’s going to end? Too-big-to-fail is now bigger. Bailouts from central banks are more frequent. Overt and covert citizen subsidies for this crime keep climbing. Welcome to the financial cancer club.

Farce #6: Risk is gone. Now there is only liability borne by citizens.

Corrupted capitalism expects you, the citizen, to pay for “their,” the crony capitalists’, failure. In functioning capitalism, a company and its investors take their own risks, profit from the gains, and stomach the losses. Other people do not pay for their mistakes or their crimes.

That core element of capitalism is now gone. Irish citizens have had to pay many billions just to cover the losses of one of their private banks. Greece has learned, with its enforced austerity programs, that if this liability is not paid in dollars (or the phony dollars of debt restructuring), it gets paid in diminished quality of life.

Farce #7: Productivity has been supplanted by parasitism

There is hardly anything more important to thriving functioning capitalism than productivity, and sharing the fruits of productivity. It is notable that productivity among U.S. workers actually skyrocketed over the last decade and a half, but real wages have flattened or declined.
Where did the surpluses go? To parasitic financializers who have seen their share over all corporate profits grow from 10% to over 45% in recent decades.

After costing trillions and wiping out the world economy, what asset, good, or service do big banks produce that has genuine public worth?

• “Expert advice”, in which brokers intentionally sell junk to consumers, as shown in investment bank emails?
• “Financial services”, which turn out to be so laden with hidden fees and loosened/fabricated credit qualifications that the lendee is worse off?
• Allegiances that concentrate financial wealth the top 0.1% of the population, causing the vast majority of the world to get poorer?

If anything, citizens would stand to gain more by paying big banks to close their doors.
Big banks have largely stopped lending to businesses or individuals because that’s not profitable enough and because they need to retain capital to reduce their exposure due to their own foolish overleveraging. This depresses community and small business entrepreneurship and productivity.
Bottom line: Big banks’ “services” take far more in costs than they provide in benefits. Much would be gained, and little lost, if they were allowed to fail or were decommissioned outright for their criminal behavior.

Conclusion

In short, the non-accountability of big banks means American honest work and honest gain will be increasingly ripped off. This is a zero-sum game in which not even a single, direct, effective champion of the interest of broader American and middle and working class interest exists in the actual machinery of Washington.

Those few heroes, the former and present prosecutors and officials who have attempted to enforce transparency and accountability, Elizabeth Warren, Brooksley Born, Harry Markopolos, Neil Barofsky, and William K. Black have either been ignored, pushed out, or shut down.
“I thought that if there was ever going to be a political figure that would take on the interests of Wall Street, and put the American people… above the monied interests, it was going to be President Obama, and that just didn’t happen. In fact it was the opposite. He had the same ideology as Timothy Geithner [and others from Wall Street]: ‘Protect the banks. What is best for the biggest banks is what’s best for the country.’”
This is pretty grim stuff, but it has a silver lining: When you don’t have champions to manage the economy fairly or effectively, you organize yourselves to transform your economy.

Both liberal and conservative officials have turned themselves from public servants into private servants. We, in response, have no excuse but to turn ourselves into necessary public champions. We must decide and act upon our choices to drive the economy in a healthy direction.

Economy cannot exist without people and their agreement. It is our job now to form the next principles and new, healthy practices as we turn away from a corrupted system.
To inform this effort, I shall be releasing my new article next week, called “I Give a Damn: A Manifesto for the Productive Class.” I will also have an e-book available soon called “Transforming Economy: Moving from Corrupted Capitalism to Connected Communities.”

Please email me at zeus@citizenzeus.com if you are interested in the “Transforming Economy” e-book, or simply subscribe at my website citizenzeus.com to read my latest work and be notified when the e-book is available.

By Zeus Yiamouyiannis, Ph.D. (aka Citizen Zeus), copyright November 2012



My new book Why Things Are Falling Apart and What We Can Do About It is now available in print and Kindle editions--20% to 30% discounts this week only.

Things are falling apart—that is obvious. But why are they falling apart? The reasons are complex and global. Our economy and society have structural problems that cannot be solved by adding debt to debt. We are becoming poorer, not just from financial over-reach, but from fundamental forces that are not easy to identify or understand. We will cover the five core reasons why things are falling apart:

go to print edition1. Debt and financialization
2. Crony capitalism and the elimination of accountability
3. Diminishing returns
4. Centralization
5. Technological, financial and demographic changes in our economy
Complex systems weakened by diminishing returns collapse under their own weight and are replaced by systems that are simpler, faster and affordable. If we cling to the old ways, our system will disintegrate. If we want sustainable prosperity rather than collapse, we must embrace a new model that is Decentralized, Adaptive, Transparent and Accountable (DATA).
We are not powerless. Not accepting responsibility and being powerless are two sides of the same coin: once we accept responsibility, we become powerful.

This week only, 20% discount on the Kindle edition: $7.95 (retail $9.95)       print edition: $24 on Amazon.com

To receive a 30% discount on the print edition: $16.80 (retail $24), follow the link, open a Createspace account and enter discount code B9G5JDXD. (This is the only way I can offer a discount.)

Thank you, Anthony B. ($25), for your splendidly generous contribution to this site--I am greatly honored by your support and readership.

Terms of Service

All content on this blog is provided by Trewe LLC for informational purposes only. The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site. The owner will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the availability of this information. The owner will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information. These terms and conditions of use are subject to change at anytime and without notice.


Our Privacy Policy:


Correspondents' email is strictly confidential. This site does not collect digital data from visitors or distribute cookies. Advertisements served by a third-party advertising network (Investing Channel) may use cookies or collect information from visitors for the purpose of Interest-Based Advertising; if you wish to opt out of Interest-Based Advertising, please go to Opt out of interest-based advertising (The Network Advertising Initiative). If you have other privacy concerns relating to advertisements, please contact advertisers directly. Websites and blog links on the site's blog roll are posted at my discretion.


PRIVACY NOTICE FOR EEA INDIVIDUALS


This section covers disclosures on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for users residing within EEA only. GDPR replaces the existing Directive 95/46/ec, and aims at harmonizing data protection laws in the EU that are fit for purpose in the digital age. The primary objective of the GDPR is to give citizens back control of their personal data. Please follow the link below to access InvestingChannel’s General Data Protection Notice. https://stg.media.investingchannel.com/gdpr-notice/


Notice of Compliance with The California Consumer Protection Act
This site does not collect digital data from visitors or distribute cookies. Advertisements served by a third-party advertising network (Investing Channel) may use cookies or collect information from visitors for the purpose of Interest-Based Advertising. If you do not want any personal information that may be collected by third-party advertising to be sold, please follow the instructions on this page: Limit the Use of My Sensitive Personal Information.


Regarding Cookies:


This site does not collect digital data from visitors or distribute cookies. Advertisements served by third-party advertising networks such as Investing Channel may use cookies or collect information from visitors for the purpose of Interest-Based Advertising; if you wish to opt out of Interest-Based Advertising, please go to Opt out of interest-based advertising (The Network Advertising Initiative) If you have other privacy concerns relating to advertisements, please contact advertisers directly.


Our Commission Policy:

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I also earn a commission on purchases of precious metals via BullionVault. I receive no fees or compensation for any other non-advertising links or content posted on my site.

  © Blogger templates Newspaper III by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP