Softpanorama

May the source be with you, but remember the KISS principle ;-)
Home Switchboard Unix Administration Red Hat TCP/IP Networks Neoliberalism Toxic Managers
(slightly skeptical) Educational society promoting "Back to basics" movement against IT overcomplexity and  bastardization of classic Unix

Neoliberal Kleptocracy

Neoliberal government which adopted neoliberal ideology with its belief of self-regulation market and in  which no outside oversight is possible, due to the ability of the kleptocrat(s) to personally control both the supply of public funds and the means of determining their disbursal.

Kleptocratic elite typically treat their country's treasury as though it were their own personal bank account, spending the funds on luxury goods as they see fit. Many members of kleptocratic elite (especially financial elite) also secretly transfer public funds into secret personal numbered bank accounts in foreign countries in order to provide them with continued luxury if/when their criminal behavior was exposed and they are forced to leave the country.

Kleptocracy is the political regime to which countries in which the governing ideology is neoliberalism gravitate.  Such incomes constitute a form of economic rent and are therefore easier to siphon off without causing the income itself to decrease (for example, due to capital flight as investors pull out to escape the high taxes levied by the kleptocrats).

Top Visited
 Switchboard
Latest
Past week
Past month

NEWS CONTENTS

Old News ;-)

Rich Americans accused of criminal activity revealed in leaked offshore accounts data

The Raw Story

A trove of data obtained by a US-based journalists' group that details thousands of offshore accounts reveals several instances of swindles and other financial crimes, The Washington Post newspaper reported Sunday.

Among the 4,000 US individuals listed in the records, at least 30 were American citizens accused in lawsuits or criminal cases of fraud, money laundering or other serious financial misconduct, the report said.

They include billionaire hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam, who was convicted in 2011 in one of the biggest insider trading scandals in US history, and Paul Bilzerian, who was convicted of securities fraud, the paper noted.

The report was the latest by prominent newspapers around the world which were given copies of the data for scrutiny by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

The head of the ICIJ, Gerard Ryle, obtained the data - involving 2.5 million records of more than 120,000 companies and trusts set up by two offshore companies operating in the British Virgin Islands and in Asia and the South Pacific - on a hard drive after investigating a fraud and offshore haven case in Australia.

Several newspapers, including France's Le Monde and Britain's Guardian, have been publishing revelations based on the data.

The Washington Post's report said the records contained information on at least 23 companies linked to an alleged $230 million tax fraud in Russia that was investigated by a Moscow-based lawyer named Sergei Magnitsky.

After Magnitsky informed Russian authorities of his findings, he was accused of fraud himself and thrown in prison, where he died in 2009 under suspicious circumstances.

One of the companies mentioned in the records was used to set up Swiss bank accounts, into which the husband of a Russian tax official deposited millions in cash, the paper said.

Today, there are between 50 and 60 offshore financial centers around the world holding billions of dollars at a time of historic US deficits and budget cuts, The Washington Post said.

Groups that monitor tax issues estimate that between $8 trillion and $32 trillion in private global wealth is parked offshore, according to the paper.

According to fraud experts, offshore bank accounts and companies are vital to those wishing to conceal complex financial crimes.

For example, Allen Stanford, who ran a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, used a bank he controlled in Antigua, The Post noted.

And Bernard Madoff, who ran the largest Ponzi scheme in US history, used a series of offshore "feeder funds" to fuel the growth of his scam.

The Washington Post quoted a top official in the US Justice Department's fraud section, Paul Pelletier, as saying US owners of offshore accounts were sometimes trying to hide money from US tax authorities, law enforcement or regulators.

"As a prosecutor, it was very difficult pursuing these people," he said.

THe END oF MF GLoBaL Zero Hedge

nmewn

We live in a nation where the well connected (Jon Corzine) can pillage at leisure without fear of prosecution.

Where his former parasitical employees (like Lisa Jackson of the EPA) can be promoted into higher federal office and show the nation true "transparency" by conducting government business via anonymous email accounts under the name of Richard Windsor.

Where David Gregory can smuggle contraband into the nations capitol, show the world he is in possession of it on national television and have no fear of arrest or even charges brought.

A nation where, the top law enforcement officer in the land (Eric Holder) needs to have presidential protection for engaging in international gun smuggling even as the president seeks to ban guns domestically.

The criminals are not in jails, they're operating the jails.

Prison Planet.com " American Kleptocracy

William Astore and Tom Engelhardt
Campaign For Liberty
April 23, 2010

It's hard to miss these days. The headlines tell the story - repetitively. Everyone, it seems, is on the take. The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Goldman Sachs with securities fraud for creating and selling "a mortgage investment that was secretly intended to fail" - and then betting against its own customers. JPMorgan Chase which, in a pinch in 2008, happily took taxpayer dough, just reported $3.3 billion in profits for the first quarter of 2010, a jump of 55% over the previous quarter. The bank set aside $9.3 billion in what's called "compensation and benefits" for its employees in 2009.

Even when they lose, they win. According to James Kwak of the Baseline Scenario website, on a deal in which JPMorgan swallowed $880 million in losses, its bankers still managed to walk away with up to $10 million in compensation. As he wrote, "JPMorgan's bankers did just fine, despite having placed a ticking time bomb on their own bank's balance sheet." Meanwhile, Robert Rubin, who helped create the world that led to the 2008 financial meltdown as Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton, then took a top position at Citibank and made more than $100 million before it tanked on his watch. As economist Dean Baker puts it, "In the fall of 2008, when Citigroup was saved from bankruptcy with a taxpayer bailout, Rubin quietly slipped out the back door (with his money), resigning from his position at Citigroup." Only recently Rubin made the headlines for offering the least apologetic (non-)apology imaginable for taking the American people to the cleaners.

And when it comes to taking, according to Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times, "more than 125 former Congressional aides and lawmakers are now working for financial firms as part of a multibillion-dollar effort to shape, and often scale back, federal regulatory power." In other words, the regulators and their aides legislate the rules and then simply step through that infamous revolving door and pick up a handsome check on the other side. There are, in fact, at least 11,000 well-employed registered lobbyists in Washington today. A $3.4 billion "industry" in 2009, lobbying is definitely a field to get into, even in bad times, and according to the Christian Science Monitor, "when the cost of grass-roots efforts and of strategic advisers are all counted, total spending on influencing policy in Washington approaches $9.6 billion a year."

As for the money flowing into politics from corporate deep pockets, 2008 not only saw the first billion-dollar presidential campaign, but at $1.7 billion, more than doubled the 2004 campaign's costs, and no one expects 2012 to be anything but more expensive. All this is, of course, known to anyone who glances at the front page of a daily newspaper, but what exactly do we make of it all? What does it add up to? William Astore, historian and TomDispatch regular, has a suggestion, but before you start his piece, you might want to close your purse or button that back pocket with your wallet in it. Otherwise, they could be picked bare by the time you're done. Tom

William J. Astore American Kleptocracy How Fears of Socialism and Fascism Hide Naked Theft

Crossposted with TomDispatch.com.

Kleptocracy -- now, there's a word I was taught to associate with corrupt and exploitative governments that steal ruthlessly and relentlessly from the people. It's a word, in fact, that's usually applied to flawed or failed governments in Africa, Latin America, or the nether regions of Asia. Such governments are typically led by autocratic strong men who shower themselves and their cronies with all the fruits of extracted wealth, whether stolen from the people or squeezed from their country's natural resources. It's not a word you're likely to see associated with a mature republic like the United States led by disinterested public servants and regulated by more-or-less transparent principles and processes.

In fact, when Americans today wish to critique or condemn their government, the typical epithets used are "socialism" or "fascism." When my conservative friends are upset, they send me emails with links to material about "ObamaCare" and the like. These generally warn of a future socialist takeover of the private realm by an intrusive, power-hungry government. When my progressive friends are upset, they send me emails with links pointing to an incipient fascist takeover of our public and private realms, led by that same intrusive, power-hungry government (and, I admit it, I'm hardly innocent when it comes to such "what if" scenarios).

What if, however, instead of looking at where our government might be headed, we took a closer look at where we are -- at the power-brokers who run or influence our government, at those who are profiting and prospering from it? These are, after all, the "winners" in our American world in terms of the power they wield and the wealth they acquire. And shouldn't we be looking as well at those Americans who are losing -- their jobs, their money, their homes, their healthcare, their access to a better way of life -- and asking why?

If we were to take an honest look at America's blasted landscape of "losers" and the far shinier, spiffier world of "winners," we'd have to admit that it wasn't signs of onrushing socialism or fascism that stood out, but of staggeringly self-aggrandizing greed and theft right in the here and now. We'd notice our public coffers being emptied to benefit major corporations and financial institutions working in close alliance with, and passing on remarkable sums of money to, the representatives of "the people." We'd see, in a word, kleptocracy on a scale to dazzle. We would suddenly see an almost magical disappearing act being performed, largely without comment, right before our eyes.

Of Red Herrings and Missing Pallets of Money

Think of socialism and fascism as the red herrings of this moment or, if you're an old time movie fan, as Hitchcockian MacGuffins -- in other words, riveting distractions. Conservatives and tea partiers fear invasive government regulation and excessive taxation, while railing against government takeovers -- even as corporate lobbyists write our public healthcare bills to favor private interests. Similarly, progressives rail against an emergent proto-fascist corps of private guns-for-hire, warrantless wiretapping, and the potential government-approved assassination of U.S. citizens, all sanctioned by a perpetual, and apparently open-ended, state of war.

Yet, if this is socialism, why are private health insurers the government's go-to guys for healthcare coverage? If this is fascism, why haven't the secret police rounded up tea partiers and progressive critics as well and sent them to the lager or the gulag?

Consider this: America is not now, nor has it often been, a hotbed of political radicalism. We have no substantial socialist or workers' party. (Unless you're deluded, please don't count the corporate-friendly "Democrat" party here.) We have no substantial fascist party. (Unless you're deluded, please don't count the cartoonish "tea partiers" here; these predominantly white, graying, and fairly affluent Americans seem most worried that the jackbooted thugs will be coming for them.)

What drives America today is, in fact, business -- just as was true in the days of Calvin Coolidge. But it's not the fair-minded "free enterprise" system touted in those freshly revised Texas guidelines for American history textbooks; rather, it's a rigged system of crony capitalism that increasingly ends in what, if we were looking at some other country, we would recognize as an unabashed kleptocracy.

Recall, if you care to, those pallets stacked with hundreds of millions of dollars that the Bush administration sent to Iraq and which, Houdini-like, simply disappeared. Think of the ever-rising cost of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, now in excess of a trillion dollars, and just whose pockets are full, thanks to them.

If you want to know the true state of our government and where it's heading, follow the money (if you can) and remain vigilant: our kleptocratic Houdinis are hard at work, seeking to make yet more money vanish from your pockets -- and reappear in theirs.

From Each According to His Gullibility -- To Each According to His Greed

Never has the old adage my father used to repeat to me -- "the rich get richer and the poor poorer" -- seemed fresher or truer. If you want confirmation of just where we are today, for instance, consider this passage from a recent piece by Tony Judt:

In 2005, 21.2 percent of U.S. national income accrued to just 1 percent of earners. Contrast 1968, when the CEO of General Motors took home, in pay and benefits, about sixty-six times the amount paid to a typical GM worker. Today the CEO of Wal-Mart earns nine hundred times the wages of his average employee. Indeed, the wealth of the Wal-Mart founder's family in 2005 was estimated at about the same ($90 billion) as that of the bottom 40 percent of the U.S. population: 120 million people.

Wealth concentration is only one aspect of our increasingly kleptocratic system. War profiteering by corporations (however well disguised as heartfelt support for our heroic warfighters) is another. Meanwhile, retired senior military officers typically line up to cash in on the kleptocratic equivalent of welfare, peddling their "expertise" in return for impressive corporate and Pentagon payouts that supplement their six-figure pensions. Even that putative champion of the Carhartt-wearing common folk, Sarah Palin, pocketed a cool $12 million last year without putting the slightest dent in her populist bona fides.

Based on such stories, now legion, perhaps we should rewrite George Orwell's famous tagline from Animal Farm as: All animals are equal, but a few are so much more equal than others.

And who are those "more equal" citizens? Certainly, major corporations, which now enjoy a kind of political citizenship and the largesse of a federal government eager to rescue them from their financial mistakes, especially when they're judged "too big to fail." In raiding the U.S. Treasury, big banks and investment firms, shamelessly ready to jack up executive pay and bonuses even after accepting billions in taxpayer-funded bailouts, arguably outgun militarized multinationals in the conquest of the public realm and the extraction of our wealth for their benefit.

Such kleptocratic outfits are, of course, abetted by thousands of lobbyists and by politicians who thrive off corporate campaign contributions. Indeed, many of our more prominent public servants have proved expert at spinning through the revolving door into the private sector. Even ex-politicians who prefer to be seen as sympathetic to the little guy like former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt eagerly cash in.

I'm Shocked, Shocked, to Find Profiteering Going on Here

An old Roman maxim enjoins us to "let justice be done, though the heavens fall." Within our kleptocracy, the prevailing attitude is an insouciant "We'll get ours, though the heavens fall." This mindset marks the decline of our polity. A spirit of shared sacrifice, dismissed as hopelessly naďve, has been replaced by a form of tribalized privatization in which insiders find ways to profit no matter what.

Is it any surprise then that, in seeking to export our form of government to Iraq and Afghanistan, we've produced not two model democracies, but two emerging kleptocracies, fueled respectively by oil and opium?

When we confront corruption in Iraq or Afghanistan, are we not like the police chief in the classic movie Casablanca who is shocked, shocked to find gambling going on at Rick's Café, even as he accepts his winnings?

Why then do we bother to feign shock when Iraqi and Afghan elites, a tiny minority, seek to enrich themselves at the expense of the majority?

Shouldn't we be flattered? Imitation, after all, is the sincerest form of flattery. Isn't it?

William J. Astore is a TomDispatch regular; he teaches History at the Pennsylvania College of Technology and served in the Air Force for 20 years, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. He may be reached at [email protected].

Copyright 2010 William J. Astore

HUFFPOST SUPER USER

bigOther

70 Fans

03:11 PM on 04/24/2010
One of its most detrimental effects has been on our culture and society, where only money is made the measure of men and women, and other qualities are downgraded.

So, when the money fails, there is no learning, wisdom, cultural solace... just the ugly detritus of the corporate world

photo

kelisawood

16 Fans 01:18 AM on 04/25/2010 Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think --Ayn Rand

siamao

1544 Fans

11:42 AM on 04/25/2010 Whaatever that's supposed to mean in Rand's philosophy of greed. There are More Comments on this Thread. Click Here To See them All HUFFPOST SUPER USER

SPQR1775

705 Fans 06:40 AM on 04/23/2010

Great article, great read, if Americans is to truly learn and understand, in order that we can be awaken, everyone need to take classes and courses in International Relations, Comparative Politics and Conflict Resolution. In doing so, one would be able to compare goverments and political systems and see that the US is currently where Russia was before Putin. There is a plutocracy, oligarchical system in the US. They have fleece Americans and now are doing so with the treasury. The system of taxation without any representation lives, the current teab partying tea baggers are indeed white rich and ignorantly stupid, no clue at all, or if they have a clue are working for their corporate cabal and they are then the lackeys. I enjoy reading this piece, great timing, I have emailed it to a few friends, I hope it catches on, because we are in a fights currently against the same slave owners and their system of merciletialism. The election of OBAMA wasn't planned it happened and now they want us to believe he is a socialist, facist, when all along they are the ones who take over 6 thrillion dollars and plunge the economy. Americans, got stuck with the bill, the truth is we need to raise taxes on all Americans making 1 million or more. 10 million Americans holds 98% of the nations wealth! NO HOPE, except a Revolution of the minds!
gmb007

5495 Fans

11:45 AM on 04/24/2010 "The system of taxation without any representation lives" ~ SPQR1775

You make a very excellent point.

Congress is virtually bought and sold in our "free market" and they then vote according to the highest bidder - capitalism at its finest. Voting by the people, therefore, has become basically meaningless - nothing more than a quaint, futile exercise in "democracy", a nostalgic tradition giving us the illusion that we have real choices and a voice.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Seeing as Congress is bought and paid for with cold, hard cash, our "votes" are worthless. We will never have enough currency to play with the big dogs. Piggy banks can never compete with vaults. Our democracy has become a massive sham.

Our representatives no longer speak for us, even as they pretend to listen to our concerns and demands - they represent, speak for and aggressively promote their benefactors' special interests. We are indeed being taxed without true representation.

We have been made voiceless by default, even as we are still expected to hand over a blank check.

But we remember the last time that tyrannical crap happened...1776.

America's Neo-Aristocracy ignores our rebellious history at their peril. gmb007: "The system of taxation without any representation lives" ~ SPQR1775

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/gmb007/american-kleptocracy-how_b_547708_45433996.html

History | Permalink |

This comment has been down-ranked into oblivion. View comment

You have not right to carry out this operation or Error this operation.

spinner Loading comments…

This comment has been down-ranked into oblivion. View comment

You have not right to carry out this operation or Error this operation.

spinner Loading comments…

02:17 AM on 04/23/2010 The opening poem of the Tale of the Heike goes something like this:
The sound of the bell of Gionshoja echoes the impermanence of all things.
The hue of the flowering of the teak tree declares that they who flourish will be brought low.
Yay, the proud ones are but for a moment, Like an evening dream in springtime.
The mighty are destroyed in tne end.
They are as dust before the wind.
The American kleptocracy is very young and has begun it's career like the Ebola virus. It devastated its host too quickly to provide for itself for many generations. This is not a nation of serfs. We will fight back. grouseless54: The opening poem of the Tale of the Heike goes

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/grouseless54/american-kleptocracy-how_b_547708_45327184.html

History | Permalink |

This comment has been down-ranked into oblivion. View comment

You have not right to carry out this operation or Error this operation.

spinner Loading comments…

01:24 AM on 04/23/2010 What are you not getting about the definition of "fascism"? Look at the Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism. Fascism is the government structuring itself to serve corporate interests. I don't like the Tea Partiers any more than you do. They demonstrate rank ignorance, hollering "Keep the government's [expletive] hands off my Medicare" and other non-sense chants. They think the national debt to be unpayable even though it is less than it was in 1950 in real GDP dollars, and a simple repeal of the Bush tax cuts rapidly reduces it to a manageable level.\

But when they say "fascism" as an expletive, they are exactly right. Government working with, aligned with, and coopted by corporatist interests, they get it right. Like they say, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Brooks_Gracie: What are you not getting about the definition of "fascism"?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Brooks_Gracie/american-kleptocracy-how_b_547708_45325682.html

History | Permalink | 06:26 AM on 04/23/2010 Like Tea Partiers deserve comparison with a stopped clock! Clock without an hour hand is more like it. The definition of Fascism is not as reductive as you make out.

And Tea Partiers couldn't care less about corporate power - they LIKE corporate power, they'll defend the rights of rich people to be as rich as possible to the death, or at least until another Republican president is elected. OhTheHumanities: Like Tea Partiers deserve comparison with a stopped clock! Clock

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/OhTheHumanities/american-kleptocracy-how_b_547708_45330209.html

History | Permalink |
photoHUFFPOST SUPER USER RS

I think, therefore, I don't listen to Limbaugh

734 Fans
02:43 PM on 04/24/2010 "And Tea Partiers couldn't care less about corporate power - they LIKE corporate power..."


Especially the power of the corporations they own stock in. Remember what is written in the Bible: NO ONE CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS, and in the world of corporate investors, PROFITS WILL ALWAYS COME BEFORE THEIR FELLOW AMERICANS. RS: "And Tea Partiers couldn't care less about corporate power -

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/RS/american-kleptocracy-how_b_547708_45444617.html

History | Permalink |

This comment has been down-ranked into oblivion. View comment

You have not right to carry out this operation or Error this operation.

spinner Loading comments…

This comment has been down-ranked into oblivion. View comment

You have not right to carry out this operation or Error this operation.

spinner Loading comments…

This comment has been down-ranked into oblivion. View comment

You have not right to carry out this operation or Error this operation.

spinner Loading comments…

HUFFPOST SUPER USER awake108

99 Fans

12:15 AM on 04/23/2010 We have supported kleptocracies in south and central america for year. That is why they all want to come here. There are no decent paying jobs or industry in those countries. We can look at them and see our future if we don't wake up to what is going on. awake108: We have supported kleptocracies in south and central america for

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/awake108/american-kleptocracy-how_b_547708_45323210.html

History | Permalink |

This comment has been down-ranked into oblivion. View comment

You have not right to carry out this operation or Error this operation. photo

spinner Loading comments…

HUFFPOST SUPER USER kudzumaster

People are more than political affiliation.

631 Fans

11:33 PM on 04/22/2010 " it wasn't signs of onrushing socialism or fascism that stood out, but of staggeringly self-aggrandizing greed and theft right in the here and now."

...and that's it in a nutshell. kudzumaster: " it wasn't signs of onrushing socialism or fascism that

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/kudzumaster/american-kleptocracy-how_b_547708_45321340.html

History | Permalink | hippie4ever

1751 Fans 09:39 PM on 04/22/2010 " Indeed, the wealth of the Wal-Mart founder's family in 2005 was estimated at about the same ($90 billion) as that of the bottom 40 percent of the U.S. population: 120 million people."

Yes, socialism is terrible: it would prevent hunger and poverty by taxing an obscenely rich family. Imagine how horrible not to have slums and urban blight as a norm.

muhair

190 Fans

10:29 PM on 04/22/2010 Oh I'm sure they have a nice little foundation or two assuaging their guilty consciences, if they have them. If you look at the annual Forbes richest list, most of the wealthiest women are of the Walton clan. Didn't have to do a thing! How sweet is that?

What's especially galling about the most kleptocratic companies is that they's remaking themselves green.... eco, not money. Because eco IS money. The next time I hear Exxon/Mobil or Coca-Cola crowing about their "environmental stewardship" I'm going to barf. Unfortunately, that would be very soon.

In this way, they please investors, infuriate true environmentalists, and lull everyone else into a false sense that they and we are moving in the right direction, when nothing could be further from the truth. We're living on Planet Orwell. muhair: Oh I'm sure they have a nice little foundation or

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/muhair/american-kleptocracy-how_b_547708_45318031.html

History | Permalink |

gmb007

5495 Fans 09:36 PM on 04/22/2010 EXCELLENT article, Mr. Astore! I look forward to more of your work.

Your piece hits on all eight cylinders - it describes perfectly our barbarous, supremely dysfunctional system..."legalized", institutionalized theft.

Such are the poisonous fruits of the idolized Holy Grail of the Free Market - unbridled, vicious and very ugly American Capitalism.

It is literally destroying this country. gmb007: EXCELLENT article, Mr. Astore! I look forward to more of

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/gmb007/american-kleptocracy-how_b_547708_45314740.html

History | Permalink |

Linda from Deerfield

Paying attention

1584 Fans 09:08 PM on 04/22/2010 Unquestionably, the more we learn about our publicly traded corporations, the more we understand that competition has come to mean who can get by with the most abuse of the nation that granted them the status of crown jewels -- a kind of race to the pits of ugliness, where companies compete not with one another but together as an industry against other industries for the spoils -- the wealth of the nation.

Similarly, in government we've come to understand that ideas of smaller government meant abandoning citizen protections and shelling out our money and borrowed trillions to profiteers who would cost us much more than what our formerly constrained government required -- this appears to account for the other $4 trillion in debt beyond war costs accumulated during the Bush era, and that doesn't even count the costs of recovering from an imploded financial system.

Ok, you got me started. It makes me feel sorry for any who have integrity and ideals -- they will hardly be recognizable and might possibly be in danger amidst all this unfettered greed. Yet, I know this is not who the vast majority of American people truly are. Linda_from_Deerfield: Unquestionably, the more we learn about our publicly traded corporations,

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Linda_from_Deerfield/american-kleptocracy-how_b_547708_45313105.html

History | Permalink |

R M G

1 Fans 08:57 PM on 04/22/2010 Good article - couple of errors in thinking -- "Consider this: America is not now, nor has it often been, a hotbed of political radicalism. We have no substantial socialist or workers' party."
Exactly what is SEIU if it isn't a wokers party, and the ol' Gal that heads up Acorn was really spouting off to the Young Democratic Socialists Organization the other day, saying they would all be rounded up into camps for their socialist views (paraphrasing). And not a hotbed of political radicalism - the country was founded on it for crying out loud. But yes, both political sides appear to be profiteering unethically ands I do disagree with that. But it isn't illegal, immoral, or unethical have at it - the only reason it's called greed is because we didn't think of it first. R_M_G: Good article - couple of errors in thinking -- "Consider

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/R_M_G/american-kleptocracy-how_b_547708_45312391.html

History | Permalink | 11:20 AM on 04/23/2010 The key word is "substantial". We have one Socialist senator. That ain't substantial.

And the country wasn't quite as "radical" at its founding than you're making it seem. "Radical" would've involved giving others besides white male landowners the right to vote. Mao was radical, Lenin was radical. Che was radical. Compared to them, our Founding Fathers were a set of fairly laid-back men with a handful of innovative ideas. They did a pretty d@mn good job of it, but they definitely weren't radical. philko: The key word is "substantial". We have one Socialist senator.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/philko/american-kleptocracy-how_b_547708_45343702.html

History | Permalink |

chendri887

Viva California chaparral!

193 Fans
08:44 PM on 04/22/2010 I agree that corporate personhood is at the root of many current financial problems. The question is: What is the alternative in a world so populous and interconnected? A return to family farms worldwide? A total reliance on small businesses for all of our needs? Moreover, there is no denying that some of our biggest advances in technology, agriculture, science, and standard of living have in some measure come from the corporate system. I have contemplated this problem for many years, but I just do not see a viable solution to our current situation. chendri887: I agree that corporate personhood is at the root of

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/chendri887/american-kleptocracy-how_b_547708_45311600.html

History | Permalink | 10:42 PM on 04/22/2010 You can still have mega-corporations without investing them with all the rights given to PEOPLE in the Constitution. ocoastperson: You can still have mega-corporations without investing them with all

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/ocoastperson/american-kleptocracy-how_b_547708_45318703.html

photoHUFFPOST SUPER USER Ken Freedom

Post-Modern Adventurer

178 Fans

10:45 PM on 04/22/2010 Look up the Mondragon Corporate Collective for an alternative.

Democracy is good enough for governments, its good enough for corporations. There would be a lot less outsourcing and downsizing if American workers had a vote in how the corporations they work for are run. Ken_Freedom: Look up the Mondragon Corporate Collective for an alternative. Democracy

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Ken_Freedom/american-kleptocracy-how_b_547708_45318891.html

History | Permalink |

605 Fans
07:48 PM on 04/22/2010 Excellent thought provoking article. Thank you. I agree with most everything you wrote, except the following:

"Is it any surprise then that, in seeking to export our form of government to Iraq and Afghanistan, we've produced not two model democracies, but two emerging kleptocracies, fueled respectively by oil and opium?"

I'm not sure this really an accurate representation of the history in Irag and Afghanistan. It seems to me these countries, especially Iraq, were already rather "kleptocratic" before 2001. But that's a minor quibble.

I look forward to your next article. Daphydd: Excellent thought provoking article. Thank you. I agree with most

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Daphydd/american-kleptocracy-how_b_547708_45308311.html

Recommended Links

Google matched content

Softpanorama Recommended

Top articles

Sites

Kleptocracy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Etc

Society

Groupthink : Two Party System as Polyarchy : Corruption of Regulators : Bureaucracies : Understanding Micromanagers and Control Freaks : Toxic Managers :   Harvard Mafia : Diplomatic Communication : Surviving a Bad Performance Review : Insufficient Retirement Funds as Immanent Problem of Neoliberal Regime : PseudoScience : Who Rules America : Neoliberalism  : The Iron Law of Oligarchy : Libertarian Philosophy

Quotes

War and Peace : Skeptical Finance : John Kenneth Galbraith :Talleyrand : Oscar Wilde : Otto Von Bismarck : Keynes : George Carlin : Skeptics : Propaganda  : SE quotes : Language Design and Programming Quotes : Random IT-related quotes :  Somerset Maugham : Marcus Aurelius : Kurt Vonnegut : Eric Hoffer : Winston Churchill : Napoleon Bonaparte : Ambrose Bierce :  Bernard Shaw : Mark Twain Quotes

Bulletin:

Vol 25, No.12 (December, 2013) Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks The efficient markets hypothesis : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2013 : Unemployment Bulletin, 2010 :  Vol 23, No.10 (October, 2011) An observation about corporate security departments : Slightly Skeptical Euromaydan Chronicles, June 2014 : Greenspan legacy bulletin, 2008 : Vol 25, No.10 (October, 2013) Cryptolocker Trojan (Win32/Crilock.A) : Vol 25, No.08 (August, 2013) Cloud providers as intelligence collection hubs : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : Inequality Bulletin, 2009 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Copyleft Problems Bulletin, 2004 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Energy Bulletin, 2010 : Malware Protection Bulletin, 2010 : Vol 26, No.1 (January, 2013) Object-Oriented Cult : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2011 : Vol 23, No.11 (November, 2011) Softpanorama classification of sysadmin horror stories : Vol 25, No.05 (May, 2013) Corporate bullshit as a communication method  : Vol 25, No.06 (June, 2013) A Note on the Relationship of Brooks Law and Conway Law

History:

Fifty glorious years (1950-2000): the triumph of the US computer engineering : Donald Knuth : TAoCP and its Influence of Computer Science : Richard Stallman : Linus Torvalds  : Larry Wall  : John K. Ousterhout : CTSS : Multix OS Unix History : Unix shell history : VI editor : History of pipes concept : Solaris : MS DOS :  Programming Languages History : PL/1 : Simula 67 : C : History of GCC development :  Scripting Languages : Perl history   : OS History : Mail : DNS : SSH : CPU Instruction Sets : SPARC systems 1987-2006 : Norton Commander : Norton Utilities : Norton Ghost : Frontpage history : Malware Defense History : GNU Screen : OSS early history

Classic books:

The Peter Principle : Parkinson Law : 1984 : The Mythical Man-Month :  How to Solve It by George Polya : The Art of Computer Programming : The Elements of Programming Style : The Unix Hater’s Handbook : The Jargon file : The True Believer : Programming Pearls : The Good Soldier Svejk : The Power Elite

Most popular humor pages:

Manifest of the Softpanorama IT Slacker Society : Ten Commandments of the IT Slackers Society : Computer Humor Collection : BSD Logo Story : The Cuckoo's Egg : IT Slang : C++ Humor : ARE YOU A BBS ADDICT? : The Perl Purity Test : Object oriented programmers of all nations : Financial Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : The Most Comprehensive Collection of Editor-related Humor : Programming Language Humor : Goldman Sachs related humor : Greenspan humor : C Humor : Scripting Humor : Real Programmers Humor : Web Humor : GPL-related Humor : OFM Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : IDS Humor : "Linux Sucks" Humor : Russian Musical Humor : Best Russian Programmer Humor : Microsoft plans to buy Catholic Church : Richard Stallman Related Humor : Admin Humor : Perl-related Humor : Linus Torvalds Related humor : PseudoScience Related Humor : Networking Humor : Shell Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2012 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2013 : Java Humor : Software Engineering Humor : Sun Solaris Related Humor : Education Humor : IBM Humor : Assembler-related Humor : VIM Humor : Computer Viruses Humor : Bright tomorrow is rescheduled to a day after tomorrow : Classic Computer Humor

The Last but not Least Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt. Ph.D

Copyright © 1996-2021 by Softpanorama Society. www.softpanorama.org was initially created as a service to the (now defunct) UN Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) without any remuneration. This document is an industrial compilation designed and created exclusively for educational use and is distributed under the Softpanorama Content License. Original materials copyright belong to respective owners. Quotes are made for educational purposes only in compliance with the fair use doctrine.

FAIR USE NOTICE This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to advance understanding of computer science, IT technology, economic, scientific, and social issues. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided by section 107 of the US Copyright Law according to which such material can be distributed without profit exclusively for research and educational purposes.

This is a Spartan WHYFF (We Help You For Free) site written by people for whom English is not a native language. Grammar and spelling errors should be expected. The site contain some broken links as it develops like a living tree...

 You can use PayPal to to buy a cup of coffee for authors of this site

Disclaimer:

The statements, views and opinions presented on this web page are those of the author (or referenced source) and are not endorsed by, nor do they necessarily reflect, the opinions of the Softpanorama society. We do not warrant the correctness of the information provided or its fitness for any purpose. The site uses AdSense so you need to be aware of Google privacy policy. You you do not want to be tracked by Google please disable Javascript for this site. This site is perfectly usable without Javascript.

Last modified: March, 29, 2020