As usual The Canadian has spoken clearly. "It's all lost. The center will not hold." And a good thing too, from my point of view.
My summary of the situation is that the normal institutions of government in the US, and many other countries, have been infiltrated and taken over by out-and-out gangsters who don't care what happens to the rest of the world as long as they make their score. It could be worse -- my extended family could be in charge (you don't think... no, they are strictly small time).
Once this sort of takeover occurs it is my experience that there is really nothing that can be done except to wait till the looting is over and then start over in a wiser fashion.
An obsession about secrecy is at the heart of the problem really. Gangsterism is all about secrecy. The gangsters got their first opportunity to get inside with the prohibition scam in the US in the early 20th century. They got further inside by "offering" their services to intelligence agencies during WWII. Then the over-hyped Cold War "crisis" began the process of gangsters being invited wholesale and secretly into the backstage operations of government, especially running drugs and weapons to bankroll black operations (briefly and slightly exposed during Iran-Contra). Once they had their feet firmly in the door, it was only a matter of time before they took over completely. The Kennedy, Bush, and Clinton families front the operation, so the real kingpins can afford to remain in the shadows. Silvio Berlusconi is just an oddball, a newshound like Bugsy Siegel.
The only defense against these sort of folks is vigorous law enforcement with expert investigation and mass trials and imprisonment in strict solitary confinement (otherwise they just run their businesses from the safety of prison). Of course, we haven't had real law enforcement in the US for many decades now, and the mob controls much of the rest of the world through their control of US foreign policy and its military. All the acronym agencies -- FBI,
The gangsters got their first opportu- nity to get inside with the prohibition scam in the US in the early 20th century.
They got further inside by "offering" their services to intelligence agencies during WWII.
Then the over-hyped Cold War "crisis" began the process of gangsters being invited wholesale and secretly into the backstage operations of government, especially running drugs and weapons to bankroll black operations (briefly and slightly exposed during Iran-Contra).
Once they had their feet firmly in the door, it was only a matter of time before they took over completely.
DEA, ATF and their now parent agency, the noxiously named Homeland Security -- are firmly in the control of criminal types that, while total screw-ups when it comes to running the world, are expert at dealing with threats to their business by whatever means they find necessary.
Note that the usual profit-making gangster businesses, illegal drugs (made illegal by gangster backed prohibition movements), prostitution and human trafficking, gambling (including the big casino of speculative finance where the funds are being worked like rubes with one pump and dump after another), stock swindles (Enron, World Com, etc.) and the protection rackets (largely skimming defense contracts and the massively over-inflated prison/industrial system) are all accelerating while the honest economy sinks.
The lesson after waking up after being skinned by gangsters is always the same, whether the victim is an individual, a company, a nation, or, as in this case, the world financial system: DON'T DO BUSINESS WITH CROOKS. If the deal is TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, it isn't. Nobody "needs" that kind of help to deal with anything.
No, I'm not kidding or exaggerating about this gangster thing. More and more hospital administrators I meet are looking and sounding like they just stepped off the movie lot from some crappy crime drama. Really, no kidding.
And the same is true of much of the rest of the business and professional community, at least here in the US. All that loot had to go somewhere. It went into buying up legitimate businesses that were just turned into gangster fronts and money laundering operations. Ces't la vie.
