Political and Economic Domination Goes to the Dogs

[cyu]

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/04/201242118210650523.html

within the 1 per cent there's an inequality between the top 1 per cent of the 1 per cent and the bottom 99 per cent of the top 1 per cent and they're also at each other's throats trying to change laws and pass legislation to make it easier for them to make more money. you only need an income of something like $500,000 or $600,000 or $800,000 dollars a year to be in the 1 per cent.

The bottom 99 per cent received a microscopic $80 increase in pay in 2010 after adjusting for inflation. The top 1 per cent whose average income is $1,018,089 has an 11.6 per cent increase in income

the super rich are controlling SuperPACs that, in turn, are dominating elections through extensive and expensive media buys.

it is changing consumer society. Economists used to brag about all the choices it offered, but today it is bifurcating into a world of pricey upscale shops versus the 99 cent stores.

A recent report in Ad Age reveals that the wealthiest Americans now drive nearly 50 per cent of all spending. as the discrepancy between rich and poor becomes more stark, a small plutocracy of wealthy elites derives a larger and larger share of total consumer spending.

marketers see this as recommending a disproportionate focus on luxury brands. A study by Digitas concludes that the threshold for being considered affluent is now $200,000 a year.

[cyu]

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/07/17/534591/walmart-heirs-wealth-combined/

as of 2007, the Walton family — heirs to the Walmart fortune — had a net worth equal to that of the bottom 30 percent of Americans.

the Waltons now hold as much wealth as the bottom 40 percent of Americans combined

between 2007 and 2010, while median family wealth fell by 38.8 percent, the wealth of the Walton family members rose from $73.3 billion to $89.5 billion. the Walton family wealth is as large as the bottom 48.8 million families

[cyu]

http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/article/politics_and_plutocrats_a_parade_of_inequality/

Earth’s richest 1,000 individuals now control as much wealth as the poorest 2.5 billion people on the planet. This super elite uses its vast wealth to control the media, influence politicians, and bend laws to their favor. In the US, the wealthy dominate our government: 47 percent of US representatives are millionaires, as are 67 percent of US senators.

Imagine if everyone in America was invited to parade down Pennsylvania Avenue. Imagine if all the marchers’ income levels were indicated by their height.

For the first 10 minutes, the lead marchers (those who survive on only a few thousands dollars a year) look like toddlers, barely a foot tall. Only after more than two-thirds of the population has surged down the parade route do we begin to see normal-sized marchers (those making an average income).

In the last six minutes, the marchers loom more than 14 feet tall. With 25 seconds left, the minority of super-rich looks down from a height of more than 30 feet – nearly six times the size of the average marcher; 30 times the size of those who made up the first quarter of the parade.

In the closing seconds, the shoulders of some marchers extend thousands of feet into the sky – these are the plutocrats. Finally in the very last second of the march, are the select band of Godzilla-like oligarchs who look down upon everyone else from an astonishing altitude of 8,000-plus-feet.

[cyu]

The State of American "Democracy": Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/05/dark-money-group-california_n_2077382.html

the Arizona-based Americans for Responsible Leadership received the $11 million from the Center to Protect Patients' Rights, which originally received the money from the non-profit Americans for Job Security.

Since these groups qualify for tax-exempt status, they are also exempt from disclosing their donors, which political committees are required to do.

The Center to Protect Patients' Rights is a well-known pass-through for "dark money" in elections with connections to the billionaire Koch brothers.

Americans for Job Security is a corporate-backed "issues advocacy" group that has been running political advertisements since it was founded in 1997. The group reportedly was founded by a $1 million contribution from the American Insurance Association.

AJS has ties to Karl Rove and was founded by Republican power players Mike Dubke and Dave Carney. The pair now run Crossroads Media, which handles the advertising operations for Rove’s American Crossroads, the biggest gun in the massive campaign arsenal that Rove assembled in 2010. Americans for Job Security, meanwhile, is currently led by a young operative named Stephen DeMaura, who physically works out of Crossroads Media's Alexandria office.

Aside from sending $11 million to California for ballot initiatives, Americans for Responsible Leadership has also spent $2.5 million on federal election races. Almost all of that was spent on phone calls targeting Obama.

[cyu]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/05/citigroup-hr-992-wall-street-swaps-regulatory-improvement-act

Citigroup drafted most of a House bill that would allow banks to engage in risky trades backed by a potential taxpayer-funded bailout. Citigroup’s recommendations were reflected in more than 70 lines of the House committee’s 85-line bill.

The bill is sponsored by Republican and Democratic members — Randy Hultgren (R-Ill.), Jim Himes (D-Conn.), Richard Hudson (R-NC), and Sean Patrick Mahoney (D-NY).

its passage would be great news for Citi and other financial titans. Five banks—Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo—control more than 90 percent of the $700 trillion derivatives market.

This is not the first time the financial industry has shaped financial reform laws for Congress. Citigroup was a central player in the 1999 repeal of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act that forced banks not to engage in investment activities. Its lobbyists flooded Capitol Hill for that fight.

[Sea]

The bottom 99 per cent received a microscopic $80 increase in pay in 2010 after adjusting for inflation.Do you mean the bottom 99 percent of the top 1 percent or do you mean the other, bigger bottom 99 percent?

From what I've read, the bottom 99 received a slight drop in pay -- a push on the wrong side of stagnation.

http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/saez-UStopincomes-2010.pdf

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

*heavy sigh, swig of whiskey*

Land of opportunity

[cyu]

100 times more productive or 100 times more corrupt?

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2007/01/22/070122ta_talk_surowiecki

At some companies, the C.E.O. has packed the board with cronies.

In “interlocking” directorates, I sit on your board and you sit on mine, and we both have an incentive to be generous.

several studies have found that companies with interlocking directors pay C.E.O.s significantly more.

C.E.O.s at companies whose directors sat on a number of other boards were paid thirteen per cent more than C.E.O.s at companies whose directors were not. the more connections board members have, the more likely they are to end up with what you could call “friend of a friend” links to the company’s C.E.O.

the recent study of three thousand companies actually found that the firms whose directors were the most well connected — and which paid their C.E.O.s most lavishly — underperformed the market.

[MarxArchist]

*heavy sigh, swig of whiskey*

Land of opportunity
I'd say there's about a 75% chance that my 99% self is going to drink some 60% alcohol tonight.

[cyu]

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n14/john-lanchester/lets-consider-kate

in their current condition our banks are an existential threat to British democracy, a more serious one than terrorism, either external or internal. there is one key difference between the situation today and that in the Middle Ages. Then, the biggest risk to the banks was from the sovereign. Today, perhaps the biggest risk to the sovereign comes from the banks. and the sovereign at risk is us.

Barclays makes a fuss about serving British people’s needs: but loans to customers (meaning businesses and individuals) are only 28.6 per cent of its business. What it mainly does is stuff other than lend to us, principally because, from the point of view of a bank trying to make a lot of money as quickly as it can, we’re not all that exciting.

structures of senior banking were set up to encourage unethical behaviour. some of this behaviour was negligent and/or criminal, and yet it has gone entirely unpunished – has in fact, in many cases, been lavishly rewarded. The banks will no longer defend or explain themselves in public, and a big part of that is their conviction that they can get what they want by lobbying for it in private. Their history and experience teaches them so.

It is much more efficient, in financial terms, to borrow money on the liability side of the balance sheet, and bet it on the asset side, and keep the profits for yourself. If the bets go wrong, most of the money you lose is somebody else’s and then – if you’re a bank – you get a bailout and are back in business.

[cyu]

US Responsible for Most of Gains in Global Wealth, Despite Record Poverty Levels

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/10/credit-suisse-global-wealth-report-2013

The United States is the wealthiest country in the world, in terms of GDP. But which country is the richest in terms of median wealth per person? Australia. The median wealth of adults there is $219,505, according to the Credit Suisse 2013 Global Wealth Report (http://images.smh.com.au/file/2013/10/09/4815797/cs_global_wealth_report_2013_WEB_low%2520pdf.pdf?r and=1381288140715), which was released on Wednesday. In the US, the median wealth is only $45,000, compared to an average wealth per person of more than $250,000.

[cyu]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-19/new-york-drowning-bribes-and-corruption

the Thomas Street location of the New York State Supreme Court “is pay to play; orders are not enforced, laws are not applied, domestic violence is treated with derision and conflicts of interest are ignored. Deference and preferential treatment are given to wealthy spouses and lawyers of prestigious firms.”

Good thing Mayor Bloomberg is focused on arresting Banksy when the city’s legal system has become one giant cesspool of fraud and corruption.

[cyu]

Capitalist corruption of democracy will never go away until capitalism is overthrown

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/opinion/capitalism-vs-democracy.html

capitalism’s inherent dynamic propels powerful forces that threaten democratic societies.

entrepreneurs become increasingly dominant over those who own only their own labor. traditional liberal government policies on spending, taxation and regulation will fail to diminish inequality.

he sees the United States and the developed world on a path toward a degree of inequality that will reach levels likely to cause severe social disruption.

Final judgment on Piketty’s work will come with time – a problem in and of itself, because if he is right, inequality will worsen, making it all the more difficult to take preemptive action.

[cyu]

We all know which "democracy" props up the the Saud dictatorship, don't we?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-14/crude-crashing-brent-most-oversold-ever

we clearly had no idea just how determined the Saudis are to crush Putin into the ground courtesy of plunging oil prices.

commodities are nothing but political weapons.

based on its weekly RSI chart, WTI has just hit the most oversold levels since Lehman.

what is gong on with Brent turned out to be far worse, and as the weekly RSI indicator shows the selloff in Brent is now the worst, well, ever!