Surviving Capitalism (Not) : 'Spectacular Betrayal' as Trump Hands Economy 'Back Over to Wall Street'

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

Sunday, February 5, 2017

'Spectacular Betrayal' as Trump Hands Economy 'Back Over to Wall Street'

Click here to access article by Deirdre Fulton of Common Dreams.

It appears that the same-old, same-old ruling class hangout of Wall Street is taking the reigns of government once again from the ego-driven real estate magnate, Donald Trump, and is turning him into their puppet. Surprise, surprise! This report furnishes another illustration of the capitalist version of "democracy": "The more things change, the more they remain the same."

President Donald Trump is handing the U.S. economy "back over to Wall Street" on Friday, with a regulatory rollback that critics say could put consumers and the financial system at risk.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump signed executive orders Friday "establish[ing] a framework for scaling back the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law" and rolling back an Obama-era regulation requiring advisers on retirement accounts to work in the best interests of their clients. That rule was set to go into effect in April.

Trump signed the orders after meeting with bank CEOs.

But don't be misled into thinking that the Dodd-Frank law was anything to celebrate. It was very weak and filled with all sort of holes for clever capitalists to gamble with their wealth (and the economy) similar to what occurred before the 2008 collapse. Trump with the advice of Wall Street bankers just makes it easier for them.

And Daniel Lazare of ConsortiumNews, in an article entitled "Steering Trump Back to Endless War", sees many indications of a similar phenomenon in Trump's foreign policies.

Under capitalist "democracy", the choices in ruling class elections, which they insist constitute "democracy", always represent the same winner--the capitalist ruling class. If only Americans could see that through the dense fog of their ideological brainwashing! If they could see that, they might not be so fooled and played with every election cycle. Then they might see that ownership of significant economic property, which working people like themselves created or developed, must belong to all the people in order to serve the needs of all of the people. Then they might see that invading other lands and killing people are nothing more than a war crimes, and hold people who did, or advocate, such things as criminals and treat them accordingly.