America for Sale: Is Goldman Sachs Buying Your City?

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dylan-ratigan/america-for-sale-is-goldm_b_877285.html

In Chicago, it's the sale of parking meters to the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi. In Indiana, it's the sale of the northern toll road to a Spanish and Australian joint venture. In Wisconsin it's public health and food programs, in California it's libraries. It's water treatment plants, schools, toll roads, airports, and power plants. It's Amtrak. There are revolving doors of corrupt politicians, big banks, and rating agencies. There are conflicts of interest. It's bipartisan.

And it's coming to a city near you -- it may already be there. We're talking about the sale of public assets to private investors. You may have heard of one-off deals, but what we'll be exploring with the Huffington Post is the scale and scope of what is a national and organized campaign to shift the way we govern ourselves. In an era of increasingly stretched local and state budgets, privatization of public assets may be so tempting to local politicians that the trend seems unstoppable. Yet, public outrage has stopped and slowed a number of initiatives.

While there are no televised debates around this issue, there is no polling, and there are no elections, who wins it will determine the literal shape of modern America. The Dylan Ratigan show is teaming up with the Huffington Post to do a three part series called "America for Sale", showing the pros and cons, and the politics and economics, of a new and far more privatized government.

On Wall Street, setting up and running "Infrastructure Funds" is big business, with over $140 billion run by such banks as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Australian infrastructure specialist Macquarie. Goldman's 2010 SEC filing should give you some sense of the scope of the campaign. Goldman says it will be involved with "ownership and operation of public services, such as airports, toll roads and shipping ports, as well as power generation facilities, physical commodities and other commodities infrastructure components, both within and outside the United States." While the bank sees increased opportunity in "distressed assets" (ie. Cities and states gone broke because of the financial crisis), the bank also recognizes "reputational concerns with the manner in which these assets are being operated or held."

More at the link --

[marmar]

1. Maude Barlow expressed it well:

"There are those who intend that one day everything will be owned by somebody and we're not just talking goods here. We're talking human rights, human services, essential services for life. Education, public health, social assistance, pensions, housing. We're also talking about the survival of the planet. The areas that we believe must be maintained in the commons or under common control or we will collectively die."


K&R, tragically.

[Kaleko]

2. The masks are coming off.

When you realize that the Federal Reserve is a private bank and multinational corporations have bought off most of the US representatives, it's only a natural next step to openly privatize everything not already sold off.

[Newest Reality]

3. When they are done with the sales,

how will lobbyists make a living? They won't really be necessary, so I guess they will become another facade in The Simulation if the game of "government" is still needed for more of the deceptive illusion of representation.

What is startling is that so many people are still believing in, and adhering to, an idea about government that, if it ever did exist, is now obsolete and still in the process of transformation into purer forms of corporatism, (aka: Fascism).

What do we expect after major aspects of our commons are sold at the nationwide flea market of capitalism? Well, if we are owners, then perhaps we have a place in it and a chance to prosper. What happens to the rest of us who are now alive and those coming into this world? Essentially, if everything is owned, and our rights are continually ground down to the point of triviality and symbolic gestures, then we end-up not having a right to be here at all, unless by permission, (and payment) by those to whom the planet belongs.

Also, owners have the RIGHT to do what they want to and with their property. The more above the common laws we still respect that they rise, the more one can speculate and extrapolate the scope of damage to our world that is possible when the owners are negligent and inspired and motivated by nothing other than profit.

This is something that I would think the informed would want to stop in its tracks because the logical outcome is unacceptable for all life. Yet, we are already well along the various stages where many might feel intimidated by the procedures and laws in place that were played on the fear card and continue to dominate the culture.

This really does lead you to wonder how many factors are playing into the lack of action -- the mass apathy -- that still stands; especially when you can feel a boiling-over point in your bones as if a significant threshold has already been reached for large numbers of The People and simply awaits some sparks.

It is hard not to think that passivity in these times will enable something ominous and threatening that we have already seen historically in other countries. This slow-motion plodding to complete corporatism is rather unnerving and its perpetrators are utilizing some time-tested techniques in various ways to assure its growth and longevity. On the other hand, the people who opposed things like this, (or who merely were perceived as opposition or a threat) in the past were the heaviest hit when the hammer came down. That resonates now and we are left with some serious things to consider concerning our future and just how it will play-out for this generation and those to come.

Will we really sit back and watch everything that we, (via our taxes and past representation) have collectively wanted and built? And what happens when the money from the fire sale is spent? The funds certainly won't last very long. What's, (who is) next on the auction block? If a private company that bought one of our important assets decided it was not profitable enough and closed it down, selling of those assets, wouldn't that leave us at square one in some cases?

[OneGrassRoot]

4. Here is more, from Golddman Sachs' website:

Infrastructure and State and Local Governments

Infrastructure
Goldman Sachs has been a leader in the infrastructure space for over half-a-century. The PSI Group aims to provide financing, underwriting, risk management, and public-private partnership investment banking services to a wide variety of government and infrastructure issuers including, but not limited to, state and local governments, water and wastewater systems, civic and convention centers, school districts, transportation issuers such as airports, seaports, toll roads, and mass transit agencies, housing agencies, and sports facilities and franchises.

State and Local Governments
Whether helping to provide capital to build schools, libraries, museums, police and fire stations, water and wastewater systems, development projects, convention centers, or even parks, Goldman Sachs is a market leader in financing the development of infrastructure for state and local governments and government agencies. In the last 10 years, we have served as lead underwriter on over 900 transactions totaling over $150 billion in principal amount. We remain dedicated to facilitating the investment of capital towards the development of infrastructure that can serve as a catalyst for economic growth in our cities and towns across the United States.

http://bit.ly/iVNuLQ