Death of 'Soul of Capitalism'

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Gaan de Maya's dan toch gelijk krijgen met hun kalender, die tot eind
2012 loopt? ;)

Groet / Cees

Oct. 20, 2009, 1:38 p.m. EDT
Death of 'Soul of Capitalism': Bogle, Faber, Moore
20 reasons America has lost its soul and collapse is inevitable

By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch

ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Jack Bogle published "The Battle
for the Soul of Capitalism" four years ago. The battle's over. The
sequel should be titled: "Capitalism Died a Lost Soul." Worse, we've
lost "America's Soul." And, worldwide, the consequences will be
catastrophic.

That's why a man like Hong Kong contrarian economist Marc Faber warns in
his Doom, Boom & Gloom Report: "The future will be a total disaster,
with a collapse of our capitalistic system as we know it today."

No, not just another meltdown, another bear-market recession like the
one recently triggered by Wall Street's too-greedy-to-fail banks. Faber
is warning that the entire system of capitalism will collapse. Get it?
The engine driving the great "American Economic Empire" for 233 years
will collapse, a total disaster, a destiny we created.

OK, deny it. But I'll bet you have a nagging feeling that maybe he's
right, that the end may be near. I have for a long time: I wrote a
column back in 1997: "Battling for the Soul of Wall Street." My interest
in "The Soul" -- what Jung called the "collective unconscious" -- dates
back to my Ph.D. dissertation, "Modern Man in Search of His Soul," a
title borrowed from Jung's 1933 book, "Modern Man in Search of a Soul."
This battle has been on my mind since my days at Morgan Stanley 30 years
ago, witnessing the decline.

Has capitalism lost its soul? Guys like Bogle and Faber sense it. Read
more about the soul in physicist Gary Zukav's "The Seat of the Soul,"
Thomas Moore's "Care of the Soul" and sacred texts.

But for Wall Street and American capitalism, use your gut. You know
something's very wrong: A year ago, too-greedy-to-fail banks were
insolvent, in a near-death experience. Now, magically, they're back to
business as usual, arrogant, pocketing outrageous bonuses while Main
Street sacrifices, and unemployment and foreclosures continue rising as
tight credit, inflation and skyrocketing federal debt are killing
taxpayers.

Yes, Wall Street has lost its moral compass. It created the mess, but
now, like vultures, Wall Streeters are capitalizing on the carcass. They
have lost all sense of fiduciary duty, ethical responsibility and public
obligation.

Here are the Top 20 reasons American capitalism has lost its soul:

1. Collapse is now inevitable
Capitalism has been the engine driving America and the global economies
for over two centuries. Faber predicts its collapse will trigger global
"wars, massive government-debt defaults, and the impoverishment of large
segments of Western society." Faber knows that capitalism is not
working, capitalism has peaked, and the collapse of capitalism is
"inevitable."

When? He hesitates: "But what I don't know is whether this final
collapse, which is inevitable, will occur tomorrow, or in five or 10
years, and whether it will occur with the Dow at 100,000 and gold at
$50,000 per ounce or even confiscated, or with the Dow at 3,000 and gold
at $1,000." But the end is inevitable, a historical imperative.

2. Nobody's planning for a 'Black Swan'
While the timing may be uncertain, the trigger is certain. Societies
collapse because they fail to plan ahead, cannot act fast enough when a
catastrophic crisis hits. Think "Black Swan" and read evolutionary
biologist Jared Diamond's "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or
Succeed."

A crisis hits. We act surprised. Shouldn't. But it's too late:
"Civilizations share a sharp curve of decline. Indeed, a society's
demise may begin only a decade or two after it reaches its peak
population, wealth and power."

Warnings are everywhere. Why not prepare? Why sabotage our power, our
future? Why set up an entire nation to fail? Diamond says: Unfortunately
"one of the choices has depended on the courage to practice long-term
thinking, and to make bold, courageous, anticipatory decisions at a time
when problems have become perceptible but before they reach crisis
proportions."

Sound familiar? "This type of decision-making is the opposite of the
short-term reactive decision-making that too often characterizes our
elected politicians," thus setting up the "inevitable" collapse.
Remember, Greenspan, Bernanke, Bush, Paulson all missed the 2007-8
meltdown: It will happen again, in a bigger crisis.

3. Wall Street sacked Washington
Bogle warned of a growing three-part threat -- a "happy conspiracy" --
in "The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism:" "The business and ethical
standards of corporate America, of investment America, and of mutual
fund America have been gravely compromised."

But since his book, "Wall Street America" went over to the dark side,
got mega-greedy and took control of "Washington America." Their spoils
of war included bailouts, bankruptcies, stimulus, nationalizations and
$23.7 trillion new debt off-loaded to the Treasury, Fed and American
people.

Who's in power? Irrelevant. The "happy conspiracy" controls both
parties, writes the laws to suit its needs, with absolute control of
America's fiscal and monetary policies. Sorry Jack, but the "Battle for
the Soul of Capitalism" really was lost.

4. When greed was legalized
Go see Michael Moore's documentary, "Capitalism: A Love Story."
"Disaster Capitalism" author Naomi Klein recently interviewed Moore in
The Nation magazine: "Capitalism is the legalization of this greed.
Greed has been with human beings forever. We have a number of things in
our species that you would call the dark side, and greed is one of them.
If you don't put certain structures in place or restrictions on those
parts of our being that come from that dark place, then it gets out of
control."

Greed's OK, within limits, like the 10 Commandments. Yes, the soul can
thrive around greed, if there are structures and restrictions to keep it
from going out of control. But Moore warns: "Capitalism does the
opposite of that. It not only doesn't really put any structure or
restrictions on it. It encourages it, it rewards" greed, creating
bigger, more frequent bubble/bust cycles.

It happens because capitalism is now in "the hands of people whose only
concern is their fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders or to
their own pockets." Yes, greed was legalized in America, with Wall
Street running Washington.

5. Triggering the end of our 'life cycle'
Like Diamond, Faber also sees the historical imperative: "Every
successful society" grows "out of some kind of challenge." Today, the
"life cycle" of capitalism is on the decline.

He asks himself: "How are you so sure about this final collapse?" The
answer: "Of all the questions I have about the future, this is the
easiest one to answer. Once a society becomes successful it becomes
arrogant, righteous, overconfident, corrupt, and decadent ...
overspends ... costly wars ... wealth inequity and social tensions
increase; and society enters a secular decline." Success makes us our
own worst enemy.

Quoting 18th century Scottish historian Alexander Fraser Tytler: "The
average life span of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200
years" progressing from "bondage to spiritual faith ... to great
courage ... to liberty ... to abundance ... to selfishness ... to
complacency ... to apathy ... to dependence and ... back into bondage!"

Where is America in the cycle? "It is most unlikely that Western
societies, and especially the U.S., will be an exception to this typical
'society cycle.' ... The U.S. is somewhere between the phase where it
moves 'from complacency to apathy' and 'from apathy to dependence.'"

In short, America is a grumpy old man with hardening of the arteries.
Our capitalism is near the tipping point, unprepared for a catastrophe,
set up for collapse and rapid decline.

15 more clues capitalism lost its soul ... is a disaster waiting to
happen

Much more evidence litters the battlefield:
   1.      Wall Street wealth now calls the shots in Congress, the White
House
   2.      America's top 1% own more than 90% of America's wealth
   3.      The average worker's income has declined in three decades
while CEO compensation exploded over ten times
   4.      The Fed is now the 'fourth branch of government' operating
autonomously, secretly printing money at will
   5.      Since Goldman and Morgan became bank holding companies, all
banks are back gambling with taxpayer bailout money plus retail customer
deposits
   6.      Bill Gross warns of a "new normal" with slow growth, low
earnings and stock prices
   7.      While the White House's chief economist retorts with hype of
a recovery unimpeded by the "new normal"
   8.      Wall Street's high-frequency junkies make billions trading
zombie stocks like AIG, FNMA, FMAC that have no fundamental value beyond
a Treasury guarantee
   9.      401(k)s have lost 26.7% of their value in the past decade
  10.      Oil and energy costs will skyrocket
  11.      Foreign nations and sovereign funds have started dumping
dollars, signaling the end of the dollar as the world's reserve currency
  12.      In two years federal debt exploded from $11.2 to $23.7
trillion
  13.      New financial reforms will do little to prevent the next
meltdown
  14.      The "forever war" between Western and Islamic fundamentalists
will widen
  15.      As will environmental threats and unfunded entitlements

"America Capitalism" is a "Lost Soul" ... we've lost our moral
compass ... the coming collapse is the end of an "inevitable" historical
cycle stalking all great empires to their graves. Downsize your
lifestyle expectations, trust no one, not even media.

Faber is uncertain about timing, we are not. There is a high probability
of a crisis and collapse by 2012. The "Great Depression 2" is dead
ahead. Unfortunately, there's absolutely nothing you can do to hide from
this unfolding reality or prevent the rush of the historical imperative.

**********
Dit bericht is verzonden via de informele D66 discussielijst (D66 at nic.surfnet.nl).
Aanmelden: stuur een email naar LISTSERV at nic.surfnet.nl met in het tekstveld alleen: SUBSCRIBE D66 uwvoornaam uwachternaam
Afmelden: stuur een email naar LISTSERV at nic.surfnet.nl met in het tekstveld alleen: SIGNOFF D66
Het on-line archief is te vinden op: http://listserv.surfnet.nl/archives/d66.html
**********