That brings us to a final outcome of this debacle. A radical campaign to reshape popular opinion recognized the seductive potential of the appealing phrase "free markets". Powerful business interests, largely captive regulators and officials, and a lapdog media took up this amorphous, malleable idea and made it a Trojan horse for a three-decade-long campaign to tear down the rules that constrained the finance sector. The result has been a massive transfer of wealth, with its centerpiece the greatest theft from the public purse in history. This campaign has been far too consistent and calculated to brand it with the traditional label, "spin". This manipulation of public perception can only be called propaganda. Only when we, the public, are able to call the underlying realities by their proper names - extortion, capture, looting, propaganda - can we begin to root them out.
Yves Smith, ECONned: How Unenlightened Self Interest Undermined Democracy and Corrupted Capitalism, p. 308.
1 comment:
The Yves quote appears to presume the wealth transfer is over, but all evidence suggests otherwise.
Evidence of systemic fraud across the financial system, stretching back half a decade. This is no longer even controversial, yet there are no convictions, no indictments, no major investigations in the US.
The recent healthcare bill passes with no cost controls, but mandatory private coverage -- almost guaranteed to accelerate cost growth, and almost identical to the insurance industry association proposal.
What do you do when the foxes own the henhouse?
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