Under Cover of Darkness: The Trans-Pacific Partnership

Increasingly, corporations are gaining more and more access and influence to legislation that the public and even Congress does not have through groups like  ALEC and trade agreements such as NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, that merged the United States, Canada, and Mexico creating essentially a north American continent of supposedly, "free" trade. "NAFTA contained 900 pages of one-size-fits-all rules to which each nation was required to conform all of its domestic laws - regardless of whether voters and their democratically-elected representatives had previously rejected the very same policies in Congress, state legislatures or city councils." After NAFTA was signed, two-thirds of Canadian families saw a decline in real income while two million peasant farmers were displaced from their land in Mexico, forcing many into trying to gain entrance into the United States, adding to our already growing immigration problem.

Now, there is "NAFTA on steroids," the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) (see links below), "a legally binding trade agreement for advancing transnational corporate tyranny and dismantling domestic democratic accountability" that is not only the largest “free trade agreement” ever negotiated, but also the most secretly negotiated, with "no public oversight, input, or consultations". Only two of its 26 chapters deal with trade, the rest grant unprecedented powers and privileges upon Trans-National Corporations (TNCs)while dismantling regulations and laws without any democratic oversight or input."

Take the intellectual property chapter alone, which would extend copyright provisions, if enacted into law,  from a state/federal jurisdiction to a matter of international agreement, and within that framework, plans on extending endless copyright terms across the globe  The U.S. already has the most extensive copyright terms in the world.  This is increasingly problematic for today's remix culture, intrinsic to the health of our economy. Not only can one face statutory damages, with preset fines of up to $150,000 per infringement, the criminal section of intellectual property chapter indicates an individual could face actual jail time.if it's proven that they had direct or indirect motivation for financial gain  Not to mention, copyright expansion can  be used to silence speech as they often do on websites such as Youtube.

In February 2012, powerful content groups such as the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and the MPAA (Motion Pictures  Association of America) met in Beverly Hills along with representatives from nine countries including the United States were secretly meeting in a luxury hotel in Beverly Hills. Public interest groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) were shut out, their hotel reservations canceled without their consent. Another public interest group's representatives were kicked out of the hotel.

For example, public interest groups have been warning that the TPP could result in millions of lost jobs. As a letter from Congress to United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk stated, the TPP “will create binding policies on future Congresses in numerous areas,” including “those related to labor, patent and copyright, land use, food, agriculture and product standards, natural resources, the environment, professional licensing, state-owned enterprises and government procurement policies, as well as financial, healthcare, energy, telecommunications and other service sector regulations.”

The next round of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement negotiations will take place from December 3-12 in Auckland, New Zealand, and it will be done with the same level of secrecy as the last 14 rounds in order to grant far-reaching new rights and privileges to the 600 corporations aligned with the TPP at the expense of the tax-paying public. This could affect the health and welfare of billions of people worldwide, so where is the mainstream media?

The following is a list of 35 of the 134 lobbying clients who paid more than $1 million on lobbying in 2011-2012 and reported lobbying a federal agency on the Trans Pacific Partnership.

Links:

The Trans-Pacific Partnership: This is What Corporate Governance Looks Like


Why So Secretive? The Trans-Pacific Partnership as Global Corporate Coup

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Is the Transfer of Wealth Complete?

Well, if there is any truth to Goldman Sachs plan to deliver total pay and bonuses in excess of $22 billion, after profits more than tripled last quarter, it appears the transfer, if not complete, is well on its way. Reducing interest rates to near zero, bolstering big banks with taxpayer money, guaranteeing billions of dollars of financial institutions’ debts helped set the stage for this new era of Wall Street wealth,
as if they really needed it.

Is there any doubt that we, the taxpayers have been scammed on the most massive scale ever to occur in history? We, the taxpayers, who bailed them out, saving them from facing the consequences of their own criminal behavior can't afford housing, can't afford health care, can't afford to pay our bills, can't find a job, meanwhile, the guilty parties are getting ready to divvy up billions of dollars.

But, are we, the taxpayers totally innocent? Not really. Although most of us did not directly participate in creating this systemic ponzi scheme that makes Madoff's devious contrivance look like child's play, we did cultivate the environment, over the last 30 years, that made it possible for these banksters, corporate criminals and our own government to get away with sucking the wealth of our country into their greedy paws.

Decades ago, when we bought into trickle down, supply side Reaganomics, that scapegoats the so-called "welfare queen", we made the decision that the value of money trumps all other values, and encouraged young minds to follow the money, and only the money, rather than allowing the endogenous process to occur - regarding education and career choice - that would facilitate true laissez-faire equilibrium, we planted the "seeds" of destruction. By promising a world of perpetually increasing returns, "we the people" promoted a "Gordon Gekko" value system where "greed is good", because the only fuel this promised "world" required was greed.

Take the increasing flow of graduates from top colleges into the world of finance. According to Laurence Katz , professor of economics at Harvard University and former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, in 1970, three to five percent of Harvard graduates went into the finance industry. That percentage grew to fifteen percent in 1990, and in 2006, a whopping forty percent of Harvard grads pursued a career in finance. Why was there such a dramatic increase? Because, Harvard graduates who chose careers in finance made three times the pay of their peers.

So, what's the problem? Well, lack of diversification, for one. Rather than innovating products and services that actually contribute to society, all of the educated brainpower collects to create and develop monstrously complex financial products, that are, for the most part, worthless, mostly because the process of finding out their true value is close to impossible. These "financial frankenstiens" are often composed of so many layers of different investments - each one with a whole new set of rules, that operate in opposing and convoluted ways - that it would take an infinite amount of time to unravel their worth.

In good times, these monstrosities consume themselves or decompose, however, in times of crisis, these extraordinarily complicated debt securities are more like bundles of tiny little pieces of Styrofoam, plastic, disposable diaper fill, fiberglass, aluminum, and every other non-biodegradable material you can imagine, all twisted, entangled and knotted together. These exotic "brainchilds" - not understood by regulators, buyers, or even their inventors - have only served one purpose: to clog up the financial arteries of our economic system.

In addition to Wall Street and the financial industry - with so much money on the table - collecting brainiacs, like Dick Cheney collects arterial plaque, the entire credit derivatives market was deregulated. The melding of greed, an abundance of brainpower, and deregulation blurs...no, erases the lines between legitimate business and crime or criminal behavior; in effect, institutionalizing crime within the "mainstream" economy.

So, is it any surprise that the "Frankenstein" economy emerged? Not really. But, that doesn't mean it's too late, but we better act fast because it's only a matter of time before we, the taxpaying people, find ourselves in a third world country, pledging our allegiance to the United States under Goldman Sachs.

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Healthcare and the Free Market

Tom Tommorrow takes a closer look at healthcare and the free market.

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Devout Laissez-Faire Reagan Appointee Declares Failure of Capitlism.

Aside from greed, stupidity, and corruption, it's clear that today's economic meltdown has much to do with a general lack of transparency, deregulation of the financial system, excessive leverage, the financial engineering of overly complicated and opaque securities, compensation mechanisms that in the words of James Surowiecki, "even when people recognized the possibility of dragons, they decided it was in their short-term interests (even if it wasn't in their company's interests) to run the risk of getting incinerated anyway", and a blindly or naively optimistic view of free market capitalism that ignores the inevitability of market imperfections.

Despite all the evidence, many of the conservatives are trying to market their own version of why our financial system crashed, and that is that the crash is actually the fault of government regulation. However, there are a few "free market" cheerleaders who have reversed their Panglossian ideas about laissez-faire economics. One of those men is Ronald Reagan appointed, Judge Richard Posner, author of A Failure of Capitalism The Crisis of '08 and the Descent into Depression

The conservatives believe the depression is the result of unwise government policies. I believe it is a market failure...Without any government regulation of the financial industry, the economy, would in all likelihood, be in a depression. We are learning from it that we need a more active and intelligent government to keep our model of a capitalist economy from running off the rails. The movement to deregulate the financial industry went too far by exaggerating the resilience—the self-healing powers—of laissez-faire capitalism.

The depression has hit economic libertarians in the solar plexus because it is largely a consequence not of the government’s overregulating the economy, by doing so fettering free enterprise, rather innate limitations of the free market.” -- Judge Richard Posner, appointed to the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, and one of the nation’s most prolific legal defenders of free-market economics.

I greatly admire Judge Posner's willingness to rethink some of his fundamental beliefs about free market capitalism, however, after listening to Robert Reich, who I respect immensely, and the Judge discuss it on Tom Ashbrook's On Point radio show, I'm not sure he (Judge Posner) is fully convinced.

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We, the Money Sheltered Ignorant, Must Stand Up.

Let's face it, most of us, who were sheltered by a certain amount of wealth, were "free market" advocates. Brainwashed, perhaps, however, fully supportive of the idea that interference in the "free market" system is akin to treason, we never asked ourselves, where's the freedom in "free market"?

Or, in what universe are the markets free when a few large corporations completely control the supply and the price of commodities? At least, I didn't. Anyway, if that's the case, why did we the "wealthy enough to be comfortable" worship at the altar of laissez faire?

The simple answer is, as George Orwell put it, "money-sheltered ignorance". That between the illusion of our own sense of security, too much wealth, and 'willful' or 'distracted easily' ignorance of what was really going on; we the "wealthy enough to be comfortable" fell asleep at the wheel. The market was never free.

However, now, that we're in a financial crisis that effects all of us, even those at the top of the pyramid, it's clear that the "free market" did not, does not and will not guarantee economic efficiency or social justice all by itself. Government must interfere in order to avoid inequity and social stratification in the extreme. As President Obama indicated, the size of government matters little...what matters is if government works.

The chance for freedom is here, and it's up to we, the people privileged enough to remain ignorant of the reality of "free market" economics, to transcend any leftover greedy impulses to determine what will really work to stimulate our economy for all of us, rather than just the few.

So, what's the best way to get the most bang for our buck?

Consider this. People who literally live paycheck to paycheck have no choice but to spend every dollar received. Whether it's spent on groceries, gas for their car, or electricity to heat their home, etc., the working poor and lower income America cannot afford to stash their money away. Therefore, this group of people should be targeted to stimulate the economy.

According to Moody's Report:

For every $1 spent on food stamps; $1.73 is generated in economic activity.

For every $1 spent on unemployment; $1.64 is generated in economic activity.

For every $1 spent on infrastructure; $1.40 is generated in economic activity.

For every $1 spent on tax cuts; $103 is generated in economic activity.

For every $1 spent on business incentive tax breaks, for example, "accelerated depreciation" or tax breaks for buying new equipment; $ .33 cents is generated in economic activity.

Not to mention, the greatest way to induce spending is to direct a large part of the stimulus toward the states and other localities because without federal aid, states must cut spending, therefore deepening the recession even further.

Unfortunately, President Obama's reality is that, in order to pass a stimulus package, he must conciliate to those stuck in the old framework. However, the more that we, the people stand up, the less conciliatory the President has to be.

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Institutionalized Criminality and Right Winged Free Market Ideology

Is free-market economics, free, when the price of money is manipulated? Does free-market economics include allowing banks and corporations to grow so big that they cannot fail?

Over the years, the Federal Reserve, consisting of a few wealthy bankers, meet in secret to set the price of money (interest rates), and control and direct the money supply with absolutely no oversight. Doesn't this fly in the face of the free market?

Then, to top it off, in the last year alone, the Federal Reserve has taken on even new powers. The "invisible" hand seems to be quite visible.

So, having established that "free market" economics the right proclaim is the answer to all of life's problems isn't as free as they say it is, where does institutionalized criminality fit into the picture?

Just take a look at what's happening to the corporate "criminals", in large part, responsible for this crisis. Is anyone facing prosecution? No, because they have not broken any laws. Why? Those laws have been systematically removed over the last 35 years. Or to put it another way, the greedy, "profit at the expense of the people" actions that have damaged our society far more than the all of street crime combined, were legalized, in the sense that none of the actions are against the law. Hence crime incorporated itself into our well-established system. At the same time, the laws and penalties for crimes committed by those of us not so well off have increasingly become much more stringent.

This process of embedding corporate governance that would eventually lead to and provide fertile ground for corporate "crime" to flourish as part of our financial system began when Ronald Reagan started to apply the 1960s' grassroots tactics to destroy FDR's new deal when elected Governor of California and then, President of the U.S. in 1980. Reagan foresaw that his interpretation of what a "free market" economy is (Reaganomics) could not exist in a framework of law and order that required rules, regulation, and enforcement. He had to change things.

Reagan's true power to implement his vision came not from an iron fist, rather from his ability to camouflage his motives and agenda with a benign and grandfatherly persona. How could such an affable, likable man create mean-spirited policies that subsidized the wealthy on the backs of the poor? Just try imagining Mr. Rogers as a serial killer. It's just not possible, or is it?

Anyway, Mr. Reagan went to work galvanizing Americans, by using simplistic and deceitful rhetoric, charm, and subliminal messages. He encouraged we the people to worship at the alter of the almighty cash register, and to become the best consumers we could be. Revering wealth and the wealthy - picture Robert Schuller's $19.5 million Crystal Cathedral - while at the same time, hardening our hearts to those less fortunate, lead to the gradual elimination of social safety nets, and chipped away at the "New Deal", which steadily increased the gap between the richest and the poorest Americans.

But why make Ronald Reagan the primary villain? After all, he's such a hero to so many. Well, without Ronald Reagan's vision and leadership, deregulating the economy and disenfranchising the poor may not have spiraled out of control to accommodate his form of "socialism" for the wealthy thinly disguised as "laissez-faire" capitalism.

So, as we witness the collapse of right winged free market ideology, it becomes apparent that its success depended on institutionalizing crime, or as some may prefer, the institutionalization of cheating and greed. However when you consider the immense damage that has resulted, not only in the United States, but all around the world, the only word that comes close to describing what went on for the last three decades is crime, pure and simple. And since this form of crime cannot be prosecuted, it appears it was most definitely institutionalized so that former President Reagan's beatific vision could materialize for those who deserved it, the filthy rich.

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