Ralph Nader — How Big Corporations Game Our Democracy Into Their Plutocracy

Tracing the growth of corporatocracy.

Counterpunch
How Big Corporations Game Our Democracy Into Their Plutocracy

Ralph Nader

Zaid Jilani — Hillary Clinton’s “Corrupt Establishment” Is Now Advising Donald Trump

About face!

“The establishment,” Donald Trump famously said during his closing argument for the presidency, “has trillions of dollars at stake in this election.”

He described “a global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth and put that money into the pockets of a handful of large corporations and political entities.”

He asked the country to be “brave enough to vote out this corrupt establishment.”
Now, less than four weeks after riding that line to victory, he formally invited the establishment into his administration.

On Friday, Trump announced the creation of a “Strategic and Policy Forum” that will serve to advise him on domestic economic matters. The list of advisers is a who’s-who of corporate elites.

He’s not the only one making a major turnaround; many of them had previously and enthusiastically supported his Democratic opponent.

The chairman of the forum is Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO of the Blackstone Group, a private equity and investment banking giant.…

Another member of the new advisory group is Larry Fink. Fink is the chairman and CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management firm....

Here is the full list:

The Intercept
Hillary Clinton’s “Corrupt Establishment” Is Now Advising Donald Trump
Zaid Jilani

Bill Black — Obama’s Latest Betrayal of America and Americans in Favor of the Big Banks: TISA

Wikileaks has done the world a great service again by publishing a leak of an April 2014 (partial) draft of the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA).

Professor Jane Kelsey of the Faculty of Law, University of Auckland prepared an analysis of the leak that I recommend that everyone read. She, appropriately, emphasizes that any analysis must be tentative because we have only a partial, stale draft through the whistleblower(s).

My analysis is more limited in scope but is consistent with the thrust of her concerns.

New Economic Perspectives
Obama’s Latest Betrayal of America and Americans in Favor of the Big Banks: TISA
William K. Black | Associate Professor of Economics and Law, UMKC

Raging Bull-shit — The Global Corporatocracy Is Just A Pen Stroke Away From Completion

Quietly, subtly, almost imperceptibly, the rules governing global trade and financial markets are changing. It is not happening by accident, but by wilful design. And despite the enormous impact it will have on all our lives, the public is not being consulted on any aspects of the process. Indeed, most people are not even aware it is happening.

The main driver of this change are the bilateral and multilateral trade and investment treaties being negotiated in complete secrecy and behind closed doors between corporate lobbyists, free trade activists and our own elected “representatives” (a term I use in the loosest possible sense, especially given the context). The ultimate goal of these treaties is to reconfigure the legal apparatus and superstructures that govern national, regional and global trade and business – for the primary, if not exclusive, benefit of the world’s largest multinational corporations.

Corporations have long been powerful economic and political entities, but in recent decades some have grown to drawf even middling-sized national economies. According to a ranking published by Global Trends, 58 percent of the world’s biggest 150 economic entities in 2012 were corporations. They include oil, natural gas and mining majors, banks and insurance firms, telecommunications giants, supermarket behemoths, car manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies.

Right now, the representatives of many of these firms are engaged in late-stage negotiations with the U.S. and European political leaders that would make it financially calamitous for a nation-state to take any actions against the interest of corporations. If passed — and at this rate, it almost certainly will be — it will be the biggest bilateral trade deal [read power grab] in the history of mankind.….

Anyone still wondering whether global capitalism is compatible with liberal democracy?

Based on the draft copy recently released by Wikileaks, the treaty seeks to (among many other things):

• “Lock in” the privatisations of services – even in cases where private service delivery has failed – meaning governments can never return water, energy, health, education or other services to public hands.
• Restrict a government’s right to regulate stronger standards in the public’s interest. For example, it will affect environmental regulations, licensing of health facilities and laboratories, waste disposal centres, power plants, school and university accreditation and broadcast licenses.
• Specifically limit the ability of governments to regulate the financial services industry at exactly the time when the global economy is still recovering from a crisis caused by financial deregulation. 

The trade treaties are not just about rewriting laws; they are also about enforcing them. As the author of Debt Generation, David Malone, explained in a recent talk on bilateral and multilateral trade agreements (essential viewing for anyone interested in the subject), what gives trade treaties such as TTIP and TISA their “claws and teeth” is the inclusion of an innocuous-sounding provision called the “investor-state dispute settlement”. This effectively allows private companies to sue entire nations if they feel that a law lost them money on their investment.

Read on. It gets worse.

Raging Bull-shit
The Global Corporatocracy Is Just A Pen Stroke Away From Completion
Don Quijones
cross posted at Naked Capitalism

See also Sunday Clip: “This is Not About Profit, It’s About Control”

Congress about to pass a massive SECRET anti-democracy trade deal!

Congress is about to sign off on a massive, pro-corporate, anti Democracy trade deal that was negotiated completely in secret. This deal will give corporations the ability to nullify our domestic environmental, labor, trade policies, rules, regulations, etc.

You should be extremely frightened now with regard to how fast these destructive and highly one-sided policies are being rolled out. This is nothing less than an all-out assault on our freedoms and sovereignty by large transnational corporate interests AND THEY ARE CLEARLY WINNING!

A LOT is at stake here. You think income inequality is bad now? Just wait. You think joblessness is bad now? Just wait. You think our freedoms are being curtailed now? Just wait. You think the environment is being plundered now? Just wait.

Call your Congressional Representative today and voice your opposition. I did! Here is a list of phone numbers. Find your Rep and CALL!

This is a war and we cannot afford to lose!