During the 2015-16 election cycle, Wall Street banks and financial interests spent more than $2 billion to influence decision-making in Washington, according to a report released today by Americans for Financial Reform. That total, derived from an exclusive data set, works out to more than $2.7 million a day, and over $3.7 million per member of Congress.It's clear that people in the financial industry are heavily invested in keeping the facade of "democratic" government in place. You will notice that the major banks are not at the top of the lists for either campaign contributions or lobbying, but that is simply because they are solidly represented in the secretive Deep State (see my description here ) which in reality influences all major policy decisions pursued by the democratic facade of the three official branches of government (Executive, Legislative, and the Judiciary). In his new administration Trump has directly appointed many bankers to his official cabinet.
Since 2008, the financial services industry has spent more money on contributions and lobbying than it did before the crisis, and the total in this cycle is the highest yet. The numbers reflect the industry’s relentless efforts to roll back financial regulations put in place after the crisis, lobby Congress to weaken the rules, and to forestall deeper changes to the financial system.
Once you understand how capitalists rule, you will understand that at stressful times they are tempted to eliminate the huge costs of maintaining the fiction of democratic rule and opt to directly rule by fiat. The latter form of rule that derives from capitalism is known as fascism. But you won't find definitions that link fascism directly to the rule of capitalists. This is another illustration of how even the meaning of words is influenced by their rule--in this case they go to extreme lengths to hide the relationships between the rule of the capital class and fascism.
