Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Does Our Economy Really Have to Run on Fraud?

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Does Our Economy Really Have to Run on Fraud?

by Michael Hudson from CounterPunch.

Hudson puts the bailouts in a perspective that the current Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission is unwilling to do. His description of the recent activities of the banking/Wallstreet elites illustrates how capitalism is a criminal enterprise.

At issue is the concept of capital. Does money that is made by short-term, computer-driven financial trades qualify as “capital formation” and hence deserving of tax breaks? Are the billions of dollars of “earnings” reported by Wall Street speculators to be taxed at the low 15 per cent “capital gains” rate? That is only a fraction of the income-tax rate that most workers pay....