Is there a Global War between Financial Theocracy and Democracy?

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



Posted by LesLeopold at 6:51 pm
June 12, 2010

Is there a Global War between Financial Theocracy and Democracy?


Senate and House conferees are about to reconcile a financial reform bill that is virtually designed to institutionalize “too big to fail.” And when they do we’ll lose another battle in the ongoing war between global financial markets and democratic nation-states.

This war has been going on for decades — but democracy hasn’t always been in full retreat.

The New Deal Conquest: During the Great Depression democratic forces gained the upper hand in the war. We realized that financial markets, which are driven by the largest banks and financiers, had to be tightly controlled. We knew that global speculation on currencies only deepened the Depression and had to be strictly limited. We knew that an iron curtain was needed between commercial and investment banking to protect Main Street depositors from market madness (that was the Glass-Steagall Act). And most importantly we knew that the key to preventing economic upheaval was to limit the wealth of the super-rich and to increase the wealth of working people through progressive taxes, Social Security, wage and hour laws, and the promotion of unionization. The Bretton Woods agreements forged by the Allies during WWII set up strict rules for global finance, rules that kept financiers in check for more than a quarter century.

And it worked pretty damn well. As economist Joseph Stiglitz points out, this era saw only one financial crisis (Brazil, 1964), and working people in western democracies made huge gains. Since the era of deregulation took hold in the late 1970s, the world has suffered over a hundred financial crises and middle-class incomes have stagnated.

The Deregulatory Counter-Offensive: By the late 1970s, bankers regained the advantage through the spread of a new faith in self-regulated markets. The economic apostles of unfettered markets lobbied against progressive taxes, unions, and social welfare programs. The new orthodoxy was: Let the elites collect the money–they’ll invest wisely (instead of consuming), and all boats will rise. This near-religious revolution rapidly spread through the economic and policy establishment. Regulations were dismantled right and left, and the revolving door between government and Wall Street started spinning. The American financial catechism ruled the world. And on Wall Street, the money tap was open. It did not trickle down. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/06/12/is-there-a-global-war-between-financial-theocracy-and-democracy/

[Odin2005]

1. There is a global war between the Workers and the Investor Class Parasites.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Yes, you are right. And of course it is not new.

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
-- U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864
(letter to Col. William F. Elkins)

[William Z. Foster]

3. actually a hoax

That is a great quote, and it would also be great had Lincoln said it. But he didn't.

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/lincoln.asp

[Jackpine Radical]

5. POSSIBLY a hoax. In this instance, I don't consider Snopes the final authority.

Here, for example:

http://www.ratical.org/corporations/Lincoln.html

What Lincoln Foresaw:
Corporations Being "Enthroned" After the Civil War
and Re-Writing the Laws Defining Their Existence

by Rick Crawford, [e-mail]

Here is a sobering quote by Abe Lincoln:
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
-- U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864
(letter to Col. William F. Elkins)
Ref: The Lincoln Encyclopedia, Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY)
Some people expressed doubts about its authenticity, given Lincoln's work as an attorney for railroad corporations! It was an interesting job tracking it down and verifying its authenticity.
The first ref I heard for this quote was Jack London's 1908 Iron Heel. And although the quote indeed appears there (near p. 100), Jack London offered neither context nor source.

More recently, David Korten's book, When Corporations Rule the World (1995, Kumarian Press), sources the quote to Harvey Wasserman (America Born and Reborn, Macmillan, 1983, p. 89-90, 313), who in turn sources it to Paha Sapa Reports, the newspaper of the Black Hills Alliance, Rapid City, South Dakota, 4 March 1982. But given Wasserman's ties to Howard Zinn, and his status as co-founder (?) of the Liberation News Service, citing that kind of trail is like waving a red flag for the skeptics ;-)

Fortunately, after some burrowing in the univ. library, I was able to confirm its authenticity. Here it is, with more surrounding context:

"We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end.
It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood. . . .
It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but
I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes
me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war,
corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places
will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong
its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth
is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.
I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety
of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war.
God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless."
The passage appears in a letter from Lincoln to (Col.) William F. Elkins, Nov. 21, 1864.
For a reliable pedigree, cite p. 40 of The Lincoln Encyclopedia, by Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY). That traces the quote's lineage to p. 954 of Abraham Lincoln: A New Portrait, (Vol. 2) by Emanuel Hertz (Horace Liveright Inc, 1931, NY).

Based on about 3 hrs of research, it appears Lincoln has been extensively SANITIZED FOR OUR PROTECTION. The Hidden Lincoln; from the Letters and Papers of William H. Herndon, by Emanuel Hertz (Viking Press, 1938, NY), details how Herndon (Lincoln's lifelong law partner) collected an extensive oral history and aggregated much of Lincoln's writings into a collection that served as the basis for many "authoritative" books on Lincoln.

By all accounts, Herndon was scrupulously honest and plainspoken. Hertz quotes Herndon's characterization of the various "big-name" authors who relied on his collection for primary source materials:

"They are aiming, first, to do a superb piece of literary work; second, to make the story WITH THE CLASSES AS AGAINST THE MASSES. It will result in delineating the real Lincoln about as well as does a wax figure in the museum."
In several books, I found numerous places where Lincoln spoke about Capital and Labor ("Workingmen"). Lincoln re-used his own material frequently, and virtually identical passages appear in several places. Lincoln praises the moral rightness of both Capital and Labor, but this is invariably in the context of a nation where NO MORE THAN ONE MAN IN EIGHTis a Capitalist or a Laborer, ie, where 7/8 of the population are "self-employed" on their own farms and homesteads.
This social context of general self-sufficiency would explain how Lincoln could serve for years as a railroad corporation lawyer with (apparently) no qualms, yet pen the "corporations enthroned" passage to Elkins.

A final Lincoln tidbit, although it pertains to one very specific case:

"These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people, and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel."
speech to Illinois legislature, Jan. 1837.
See Vol. 1, p. 24 of Lincoln's Complete Works,
ed. by Nicolay and Hay, 1905)

[William Z. Foster]

6. understood

I grabbed Snopes because it was the first Google result, being a little lazy. I have read all of the pro and con on this quote over the years, and I am convinced that it is highly unlikely that this quote is accurate. It does not sound like Lincoln at all (the writing, not the sentiment.) It is anachronistic, as well. Corporations did not have the dominant role in society than that they do now.

It is not that big of a deal, and I hated to nit pick. But in any case, Lincoln has far more powerful things to say on this topic, as mentioned above. They are far more powerful than the supposed quote about corporations. I think the article you cite above weakens rather than strengthens Lincoln's position, makes it sound more right wing than it was.

Herndon was a notorious self-serving drunk, who tried to capitalize on his former partnership with Lincoln and wrote and promoted a book, and much of the misinformation about Lincoln comes from this man. All who knew Lincoln dismissed Herndon's various claims out of hand at the time. At the time that the The Lincoln Encyclopedia was published, 1950, the quote was presumed to be accurate. It had been repeated by Progressive politicians and Jack London, among others. Of course Progressive politicians in the 1890s wanted to woo Republican votes away by claiming that Lincoln had warned about the rise of the Robber Baron corporations. Subsequent scholarship has proved beyond any reasonable doubt that the quite is a fake.

This is accurate -

"These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people, and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel."

It was in regard to a banking scandal in Illinois.

[socialist_n_TN]

4. Sure. And it's been going on for about 150 years now

The last 30 have seen the capitalists in the ascendancy and we're now the counter to that. It's got to be from the ground up though. If we find a Lenin, Trotsky, Goldman, Debs, etc., we'll find them AFTER the shit hits the fan.

[lib2DaBone]

7. A Story as old as the Middle Ages, Serfdom and Slavery

All the king's horses and all the King's men.

The Court Jesters and the Yes-men.. the Scribes, The Trolls and the betrayed.

Do you want to come inside the Castle walls to sleep at night and be safe?

If you do.. it will cost you a goat, 4 chickens and half your crops. And you must OBEY!

If you do not obey...the terrorists will get you. Tall buildings will fall in your major city and oil will gush forth from the ocean until everything is dead.

Tithe unto me.. and I will see that Gaawwd will protect you.

[eridani]

8. Is a bear Catholic? Does the pope shit in the woods?

[tom_paine]

9. Yes, and democracy lost.

It's so over. We now resume the track of human history, unbroken and unchanged for 5000 years. (except for the increased energy budget now falling - as it falls, so falls the masque the Aristocrats wear to fool we Plebs during this all-too-brief and all-too-mild exception to the Rule of Human History)

[Donald Ian Rankin]

10. No.