How Unregulated Finance is Killing Democracy

[@JohnWilliams-channel]

Wealth disparity is behind so much economic turmoil. It really is a tragedy of the commons for the wealthy and their rent seeking behavior that they are unable to stop themselves from destroying the society in which they live.

[@sanca5982]

True and it's unbelievable because these very people (the wealthy) you refer to are the very people that expect middle America to go to war for them. And for what? Who are they really protecting? I think you know...

[@badomaji]

And using their dough to manipulate and destroy democracy.

[@Lobsterwithinternet]

And that disparity is caused by the ability of financial products and securities to grow exponentially while traditional wages are limited by the amount of time and work you or your employees can physically do.

[@robgoren8628]

Kuttner's book is the best examination of the failure of Neoliberalism I've read in many years.

[@camerondye6108]

Excited to read it.

[@darbyheavey406]

Kuttner is an idiot. He convinced Biden to increase M1 and expand the already bloated Federal budget. He argued that FDR had too little intervention during the Great Depression. The massive inflation we have today is his handiwork.

[@harryholiday5356]

The Lewis Powell Manifesto is almost totally implemented on the US citizen and the controlled depression is now fully in place. Total control of family finances is now complete. Appreciate your bringing it for everyone to understand. Thanks for sharing this information.

[@kiwikakashi]

My dude on the right is wearing a bike shirt and a suit jacket fresh 2 death

[@MayorSom]

😂😁

[@sunishapamnani6162]

I would like to see a debate between the economists affiliated with this institute with the right wing economists who consider regulation as evil and cite „socialist“ countries like Cuba, Venezuela etc. as examples of failures of regulated capitalism

[@blakebrown534]

Huh, you know I've never thought of it precisely this way....They like to frame these arguments as anything to the left of 100% free markets (which exist nowhere and never will) is socialism / communism - they use them interchangeably, because the definition isn't important in selling fear - as if there's a spectrum with socialism on the left and capitalism on the right, like they're all part of the same system. In reality, the left side of the unregulated capitalism would just be more heavily regulated capitalism. I've argued with others who want to defend billionaires and our corrupt system as if it were a personal attack on them that I don't necessarily want to get rid of capitalism, but I damn sure want to get rid of the crony-capitalism that has destroyed the American middle class, sent all our jobs off, basically eliminated the entire concept of pensions, killed off unions, loaded us all with tons of personal debt, has commodified basic human necessities like healthcare and education, and stripped away the ability for so many to ever feel like they will be able to get their head above water and breathe easy for a while at some point in their life. That DID exist at one time, and there is no reason that it can't do so again.

[@ianchandley]

Venezuela has been a kleptocracy for decades, so bringing them into any discussion of regulated capitalism is a stinking red herring. Cuba’s “failure” was that the USA did their level best to cut them out of the global trading blocs (because Castro had the temerity to impose some fairness on American companies and evict the Mafia) - then all the Cuban emigres who fled to Florida did THEIR best to sabotage Castro. Cuba has done remarkably well since both the Revolution and collapse of the USSR in education, medicine and many other metrics that define “developed countries”. The USA between WW2 and Reagan was a great example of regulated capitalism - it worked keeping the money circulating throughout the economy (high money velocity) and improved millions of lives. Now today the USA is just a large Third World country with vast wealth distributed in the hands of a few; corporations calling the shots for government (instead of vice versa) and judicial systems slowly skewing to wealth instead of justice.

[@sanca5982]

My friend, Cuba is not a socialist country. It is a communist country where the national government runs the economy and there is no free enterprise. A social democratic system is waaaay better than a communist system.

[@von7711]

Cuba Venezuela were destroyed by global capitalism and western powers to set as an example, mainly to paint socialist and communist in a bad light.

[@utubedude2842]

Tax havens for billionaires is what is killing democracy.

[@johnnybourgeois13]

Has he been invited onto MSNBC, or are they afraid of this level of coherence and lucidity ?

[@Rnankn]

It is a common fallacy to think of the post-war order as managed or organized, and neoliberalism of the 80s onward as a primacy of markets. The neoliberal era’s dirty secret, albeit in plain sight, is that it is a managed form of capitalism that uses state power to regulate society and structure the economy. This author seems to think that financial capitalism was a betrayal of the social contract, and perversion of a successful economy. Yet, it is clear whenever capital is the driving force of a society, its concentration creates political power, which further promotes its interests. The debate is not how to better obtain growth, as all capitalist growth is extraction and exploitation of communities and natural systems at an intensity that is necessarily unsustainable. And we have reached the limit. The only question now is what are the contours of a post-capitalist or post-growth economy. While this will inevitably produce backlash, that is not economic failure, it is the political rights favourite strategy - to entrench false and unrealistic expectations on a cultural level.

[@partydean17]

What do you mean by post growth?

[@DodgyBagehot]

Every expansion of markets requires the action of the state. Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation. The slogan of "free market" is one of the greatest uses of rhetoric economists have perpetrated. Anyway, if someone wants a prescient argument, Polanyi's explanation of forces causing the rise of fascism is the ticket. Glad to see his argument return to popular discussion. After 50 years and the triumph of the vampire squid, may be too late. The embrace of the argument that "government is not the solution to our problem, it is the problem" hasnt made America great again, it has made Marx great again, his criticism of capitalism, bourgeois democracy, is increasingly relevant. The only tool to regulate the excesses of capitalism, to save capitalism from the capitalists, is democratic action in the public interest. We mostly gave that up in the 1980s and now experiencing the results of that decision. We are not able to address the challenges of the 21st century after dismantling all our solutions to the problems of the 20th century. Sad. Ignorant. Stupid. We broke it for a fast buck.

[@FirstLast-vr7es]

When the system has failed as badly as ours has failed us, all it takes is for someone charismatic to claim that they can fix it all with one stroke of the pen...or one stroke of the sword. We're knocking on that door now. Best we fix this willingly, before it's too late. Maybe it already is.

[@teutonic2020]

Wish it were possible to quadruple like a video. Phenomenal analysis. Will buy the book.

[@davidwilkie9551]

If a Functional Democracy relies on legal Good Faith, then there's no such thing as a legitimate democratic society in these dysfunctional Due Process conditions of Privatisation and Financialisation, no reliable control of Contract Law, ie unchecked and unregulated venal inducements for some Lawyers with Government influence. Very good commentary, particularly in reference to the Kangaroo Court conditions.

[@haavesaay5166]

Great book. Very well-written! Thank you Robert!

[@slorter10]

A good interview and well explained but Democracy is finished

[@robertstan298]

You kinda got it slightly horribly backwards...

[@paulblack8887]

Liberty Under Siege by Walter Karp is a good book on the timeline of the counter revolution's political resurgence with a sprinkling in of the changing mentality of the business elite that led them to a rather aggressive class warfare through the new MBA shock troops(cadres). Written contemporaneous in a series of essays it's a remarkable piece of writing.

[@eduardantonovich9791]

I'm ok enough to remember the scene when Reagan was about to sign the Glass Steagal Act to history the financiers standing over him saying "hurry up and just sign it!!"...ofcourse he did and a few years later we got the 2008 financial crisis.

[@DodgyBagehot]

Maybe just joking, but Clinton signed the Gramm Leach Bliley act in 1999, finally repealing 1933 Glass Steagall. Bank holding co act 1956 and later revisions already undermined GS before it was repealed.

[@DodgyBagehot]

Clinton signed gramm leach bliley in 1999, which is considered the end of glass steagall. The creation of bank holding company act in 70s, began eroding glass steagall, but the end was GLB was in 1999. Reagan did sign the depository institutions deregulation and monetary control act didmca in 1982, and there were others, garn st Germain and niegle real (?) But think those were 90s. After Reagan. Anyway, not sure which act you are referring to.

[@voranartsirisubsoontorn9010]

When some figure states that the world has created around 1,200 trillion value of money while the world actually produced around 50 trillion value of products and services then we all can see the problem of financialization haha

[@theknowledgeexecutive5192]

Can you give the source for these figures pleased?

[@priyalpatel4250]

It doesn't matter if you're bank that creates 10 dollar note or 1000 dollar note...if they are distributed correctly...us dollar behave in a such way that it provides liquidity for 70 percent of the world....so debt it not an issue for us as long as it is in us dollars..and most debt in the world is in us dollars....so don't worry about it.

[@voranartsirisubsoontorn9010]

@@priyalpatel4250 thanks for the idea, actually worry more of currency beside $ , CCP currency could be one haha

[@blakebrown534]

Your statement is beyond nonsensical.

[@corujariousa]

How still up to date his views/predictions still are!

[@ttrons2]

So it sounds like it is just boundless greed.

[@blakebrown534]

Correctomundo.

[@tonedowne]

Nailing it! I need to get that book.

[@LARPANET_3087]

It's excellent. I highly recommend reading it.

[@patricialongo5746]

Coping with the rest of my life under a hopeless dictatorship isn't different from growing up gaslighted in America, just later in time. Sometimes the pain can't be ignored and I'm a freaking weirdo. Normal is up beat

[@aleaiactaest8354]

Fascinating discussion!

[@icecreamforcrowhurst]

“Harmonic convergence of forces.” What a wonderful description.

[@ttrons2]

What is the real time solution?

[@myindigoblues5796]

Great interview

[@Retsler54]

We deregulated finance in November 1985. Our labour party gave in. Olof Palme did not understand what he agreed to and did not really care. He would by the way live for just another 3 months / Sweden

[@ainslie187]

The post-war boom period was not a result of strong unions and restrictions on the financial industry, it was due to a ramped up war time economy coupled with a decimated Europe which left the US sitting pretty for a while- it was inevitably going to come to an end. It was a highly anomalous period not only in the context of US history, but world history. That said, I agree the financial industry should be held to account and more thoroughly regulated, but doing so is not going to recreate the 1954 living standard for John Q Public.

[@GhostOnTheHalfShell]

And six years on with six days to go for the 2024 election, this interview remains deeply relevant.

[@vthilton]

Sharing will save the world.

[@alloomis1635]

there is no threat to democracy, as there is no democracy, possibly excepting helvetia.

[@marc-andredesrosiers523]

good job!

[@NAUM1]

Let people have their choice and that is true democracy. To say we need state control and the majority controls the minority by means of the state means true equality will diminish. The Post war era was good because we had stuff to rebuild in Europe and the US benefitted greatly from that. We are also reaching the point that the top down suburbanization of America is reaching the point where the true cost is showing itself. Can't keep subsidizing something that doesn't pay for itself which is true for the spread out nature of suburbs.

[@patricialongo5746]

The people in some nations cannot be a democracy! American people can't use reality. They need a ruler. I wish they could use facts, but they're not ready.

[@blakebrown534]

Oh god, you're exactly who he is speaking out against. As he states, The Great Depression destroys your entire ethos. There is no self-correction in an unregulated market, nor is there equality or even the maintenance of a social contract. There's a small group doing unfathomably well at the expense of everyone else. It's the gilded age. It's too big to fail. It's monopoly unchecked.

[@lynpotter6471]

I've been reading Griftopia by Matt Taibbi which touches on this as well. When I saw this video, I thought youtube was stalking me...

[@bauron1985]

it is I just have to discuss something with my room mate and it will nbe on my you tube wall

[@armandoc.3150]

Yea same. Nothing is a coincidence just to remind you.

[@blakebrown534]

God that book made me so incredibly angry. The parts about Goldman Sachs especially, like how he mentions how they got the commodity markets to deregulate and allow pension funds to invest in them when they couldn't before and set it up so they would be the middle man for TRILLIONS in pension fund dollars pouring into the commodities / futures market. Pension funds buy and hold..they don't actively trade, and they poured those investments into oil which is why we saw prices at near $150 / barrel when Obama was running for office and nobody could figure out why the hell the prices were that high. They kept saying it was speculators, but speculators only got into it because of what Goldman did to start the boom in prices. Others just followed the crazy rising prices to make a buck themselves on top of what Goldman had done to cash in after they called in their political bribes to get the law changed.

[@CoolBreezeAnthony]

Well done. I like.

[@CherryBlossomHill]

My god this was so prescient!

[@johnellington1932]

Exists by weakness, then it establishes by its faults.... Bad Habit.

[@joeblow3990]

At 3:14 the liberal Kuttner refers to a "prosperous, egalitarian form of capitalism". This form of capitalism exists only in the heads of liberals. There is only one form of capitalism: Rapacious The prosperous, egalitarian form of capitalism of the 1950's was an ABERRATION, an outlier. It took 25 years for capitalism to revert back to its true nature: Rapacious, eco-cidal system in which a tiny minority sits atop vast riches while everyone else struggles to survive. In attempting to reform capitalism, liberals take on the task of Sisyphus, forever rolling a boulder up a hill only to see it roll back down.

[@Kavala76]

Well said.

[@phylwilton1966]

"Harmonic Convergence of Forces."

[@voranartsirisubsoontorn9010]

The more a person know the more the person can feel worry but general people do not have any idea and that is alright I guess haha

[@blakebrown534]

This is one of the most ignorant things I've ever read in a KZbin comment.

[@sizzla123]

Good storyline

[@boyax7825]

we can still reform

[@patricialongo5746]

Not without the truth. Conservatives made the truth unimportant. They can always do that.

[@nedim_guitar]

This is brilliant!

[@amyjones2490]

If our people refuse to vote do they really care about democracy. What could we do to encourage more participation? Vote on the 4th of July?

[@patricialongo5746]

Voting doesn't help. Didn't you notice that Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden have the same policies? Same wars? Not like the truth can alter the narrative any longer!

[@patrickcannady2066]

Give them candidates who will represent their actual economic interests truthfully and forcefully?

[@noname-qv5hx]

Are you guys Keynesians?

[@DrEhrfurchtgebietend]

They likely do not think Keynes was Keynesian enough

[@smrtfasizmu6161]

Keynes was for highly regulated international trade so, they are probably not Keynesians.

[@pilard3135]

It's not "who's fingerprints" but "whose fingerprints".

[@geekmeee]

Capitalism and lust have a lot in common. Both require that you think about me.

[@th3b0yg]

Come on. You don't think that broad price controls, especially on energy products, produced any causation?

[@andrewlankford9634]

We must entrust all our monetary and economic decisions to corrupt politicians in the pockets of big donors and career bureaucrats who answer to no one but those politicians (although they can often make lots of money in the industries that they once regulated). It's more democratic that way.

[@blakebrown534]

Uhh no. That's not at all what was said here.

[@Kavala76]

@@blakebrown534 I suspect, and hope, the OP was being sarcastic.

[@sunishapamnani6162]

A question. Why did that liberal left order get weakened or voted out and Reaganomics gain relevance?

[@Redactedlllllllllllll]

Because billionaires willed it.

[@patricialongo5746]

The election system can't work in a mindless country. American people just aren't ready for reality, so they're not ready to be a democracy. They're violently opposed.

[@marianhunt8899]

Via marketing and clever lies, they deceived the population to vote for what was not in their best interests.

[@dancelittlesquire]

nicolas cage has let himself go...

[@mp517q]

This guy looks like Stephen Paddock

[@PoliticalEconomy101]

Maybe its really him. I would vote for Stephen for congress

[@RobertaSirgutz]

This started way before WW1! International finance has fomented wars, and many manufactured "crises". Preservation of Capital is first and foremost. The Russian revolution was caused by International financiers who wanted to destroy the economy because their banks were Nationalized, and wouldn't play ball. WW1 was started by planted agitators, that led to the breakup of Empires into incoherent nation states and President Wilson didn't know economics. He was manipulated into bad decisions, including pressure to enact the Balfour Declaration. Politics run cover for finance. They are bought and sold.

[@tomasbickel58]

"Capitalism gets its moral authority by being governed by democracy." .. I doubt that.

[@lawsonj39]

Capitalism certainly isn't getting its moral authority from democracy these days--that's why it doesn't have any moral authority.

[@tomasbickel58]

@@lawsonj39 , I thought, it's moral authority derives from it's superior capability to satisfy overall consumer demand. Though individual consumption may be debateable, legislation can fix that.

[@Machiroable]

These days capitalism is the one dictating the morality, and it'ss disastrous.

[@robertstan298]

Morality under capitalism is basically a nice fairy tale we like to tell ourselves right before we go to sleep. And it's exactly ideological nonsense we really need to step the the fuck away from.

[@blakebrown534]

@@tomasbickel58 No, the entire point is that when it goes unchecked because it's corrupted democracy it no longer provides any of that. It ONLY does that when democratic forces prevent it from running wild and sucking up a nations wealth for those already at the top. What we have right now is a massively deregulated capitalism compared to what we had prior to Reagan and what we got for it was the destruction of the once prosperous American middle class.

[@bebopnola]

Social contracts aren’t real or tangible. His whole premise is based off an idea (of a social contract) that could very well just be a coincidence as the result of a natural SELF REGULATORY after effect, which is funny considering he said “markets are not self regulating” in a sentence.

[@smartiepancake]

As usual the answer is Henry George's single tax. Next.

[@TheLivirus]

I read briefly about Henry George's single tax. I can't see how you dare assert that this is the solution to the complex issues discussed in the video. As far as I can tell, his ideas are not very well developed, leaving a lot to uncertainty. Have you really looked at his ideas sceptically?

[@smartiepancake]

"Unregulated Finance is Killing Democracy" - the single tax would greatly shrink the finance sector and force the 1% into real jobs. "Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism?" - the single tax would end the chief source of unearned privilege/monopoly/influence and thus save both capitalism and democracy.

[@smartiepancake]

bjorn I've certainly looked at many of the attempted critiques of Geofiscalism. I haven't found any good enough to make geofiscal reform not worth trying. What are your objections? Further reading - "Geofiscalism Vs Futility" by Mason Gaffney: www.cooperative-individualism.org/gaffney-mason_geofiscalism-vs-futility-1998-sep-oct.pdf

[@waspishhen1]

D Bruce Henry George had probably the greatest idea on property taxation. Taxing the unearned rents on a property due and capitalizing that into the price is the most perfect of all taxes. But your idea that the 1% “don’t work actual jobs” is just plain stupid. A great proportion of the ‘1%’ are physicians, and then lawyers and business admin. It’s just naive to think they do not somehow work and collect unearned rents. Things given in this world are more just than they are not, all the statistics on hours worked, education and human capital formation would point to that. The poor are poor not because the rich are rich, but because they never developed the same human capital, inheritors privilege plays actual little role, you can see this in the Asian income statistics. As they have littler wealth, higher incomes, and more perfect income mobility, due to higher human capital formation as seen by the hours worked, educational attainment and household stats.

[@PoliticalEconomy101]

WRONG. The answer is socialism. LIBERALISM IS SHIT

[@SamDaManX]

The government subsidizing industries and certain winners and losers in an industry is not “free market”. That’s what happens when you have big government like socialism. Our federal government is huge and the constitution only allows it to protect us militarily and protect our rights and private property. We have the right to pursue happiness, but we are not given the right of government bestowed happiness. That’s where the government have failed us and what these two fail to mention

[@bigbillhaywood1415]

Who got the government to do that stuff? Capitalists. All competition has a winner. The winners write the rules. This is the direct evolution.

[@patricialongo5746]

Democracy in the economy only leads to oligarchy. Socialism leads to tyranny, so why bother to vote when we already have an ownership tyranny?

[@JohnWilliams-channel]

That's pretty narrow minded. Wealth disparity is a real problem that creates disenfranchisement in the economic system for far too many. When the wealthy can overwhelm the price of property and subsequently charge rent for everything, we have a two tiered class system, those who must toil for income under a capitalist pricing system that treats them as surplus, and one that has all the property and the state apparatus working to protect their labor free income. What's worse with the right wing populism is that these bad economic conditions are not attributed to the source of the problem, they are directed at powerless scapegoats. They cause the economic stress and then capitalize on it politically to create more. Seriously, that is very small minded of you and your wealthy overlords are pleased.

[@blakebrown534]

The opposite of unregulated capitalism is not socialism, it's just regulated capitalism. There is no such thing as the free market. It has never ever existed and never will.

[@blakebrown534]

@@patricialongo5746 Greed leads to both of those things, not the economic systems. That's why you need strong regulations in place. Bad people always take control when there aren't rules constraining their ability to do the worst things.

[@peterohman8469]

You yanks use “kangaroo court” a lot more that we Australians do, maybe it’s cultural cringe on our behalf.

[@luddity]

Your most celebrated and important journalist will be facing a US kangaroo court soon enough. Do you not care to rescue him?

[@emmanuelameyaw9735]

This is 6years ago...democracy is dead yet?😂😂

[@RodrigoFar14]

Came here to listen to a expert, but all I heard is a socialist/communist talking. What a wast time. Bet none of u know what socialism means, and yet you are all here listening to some dude who quote Marx.

[@Redactedlllllllllllll]

We'll be in a hellscape soon enough and you'll still be stanning for billionaires.

[@pappyodanial]

This is old economic thinking. Stalin and Mao thinking.

[@FreedomSpirit108]

Fools.

[@Po-village-chief]

dead on

[@MrMicronano]

Within a minute exposes his complete tendentiousness. Would love to see a guy like this debate Thomas Sowell or a Friedman follower.