Thom Hartmann — End coporate personhood to develop new economy

The prevalence of the corporation in America has led men of this generation to act, at times, as if the privilege of doing business in corporate form were inherent in the citizen; and has led them to accept the evils attendant upon the free and unrestricted use of the corporate mechanism as if these evils were the inescapable price of civilized life, and, hence, to be borne with resignation.Throughout the greater part of our history a different view prevailed.

Although the value of this instrumentality in commerce and industry was fully recognized, incorporation for business was commonly denied long after it had been freely granted for religious, educational, and charitable purposes.

It was denied because of fear. Fear of encroachment upon the liberties and opportunities of the individual. Fear of the subjection of labor to capital. Fear of monopoly. Fear that the absorption of capital by corporations, and their perpetual life, might bring evils similar to those which attended mortmain [immortality]. There was a sense of some insidious menace inherent in large aggregations of capital, particularly when held by corporations.— U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, 19331

Read the rest at TruthOut

If We End Corporate Personhood We Can Define the Terms of a New Economy

by Thom Hartmann

That Chief Justice Brandeis was a prescient guy.

UPDATE:

Not just the Fed

Bloomberg: How Paulson Gave Hedge Funds Advance Word