Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Why Wall Street Should Be Viewed as a Major National Threat

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, July 5, 2017

Why Wall Street Should Be Viewed as a Major National Threat

Click here to access article by Pam Martens and Russ Martens from their blog Wall Street on Parade.

The Martens are no leftist revolutionaries. Rather they are reformers of the capitalist system because they believe naively that they can with their little blog alert Americans to the Wall Street's self-serving hold on the American economy--thus on the US itself--and then Americans will elect representatives who will regulate these Wall Street subversives in order to keep the economy stable. There is no hint in their writings of a "Deep State", 24/7 surveillance of ordinary Americans, the prolific organs of ideological control and news management, the insidious insertion of laws that create a police state if needed, etc.

Both the Democrat and Republican party platforms for the 2016 presidential campaign promised to rein in the abuses of Wall Street by restoring the Glass-Steagall Act and its separation of insured banks from the wild speculations of investment banks on Wall Street. Only an uproar from the American people and strident, ongoing editorials from our nation’s newspapers will bring that critical legislation to the fore.

However as reformers, they do dig up some interesting facts about the crimes of Wall Street (a more acceptable liberal synonym for capitalists) and the deleterious effects that they are having on ordinary people of the US.