Two centuries of parasitic economics : the struggle for economic and political democracy on the eve of the financial collapse of the west

Two Centuries of Parasitic Economics calls for updating the long-stagnant macroeconomic theory and modernizing the obsolete finance and tax regimes. The introduction reviews the bailout of US banks in 2008, arguing that the moral and efficient solution would have been to rescue the millions of delinquent homeowners who would have repaid the failing banks, thus, bailing out two parties, stabilizing the housing market, and bringing about a fast recovery. Part I surveys macroeconomic theory. It faults classical economics' ambivalence towards plutocracy's criminality and assuming that self-interest is the sole economic driver. Thus, extreme poverty and periodic depressions plagued 19th century Europe, providing the impetus to Marxism. Marxist economics made the opposite mistake by denying self-interest and assuming that only societal-interest mattered, seeding Marxism's demise. It credits Keynesian economics with adopting expansionary fiscal policies to alleviate contractions. Analysis of neoclassical macroeconomics concludes by calling on universities to reclassify it as a political dogma, philosophically a collection of formal and informal fallacies, for using flawed logic and false premises. Part II proposes a unified theory of macroeconomic failure that incorporates societal-interest and morality. It considers immorality a negative externality, and, therefore, could be measured and modeled econometrically. Using this framework, it identifies major negative externalities, where the social cost far exceeds the private cost, causing economic failure. Examples include an eroding democracy, misdirected public expenditure, irrational taxes, debt saturation, amplified cyclicality, and swelling monopolies. Part III considers those negative externalities in detail. It traces the stealthy evolution of a Ponzi scheme, lending money it does not have, into banking. It points to the banks' failing business model, demanding exponentially growing government support for their survival, which requires them to assume political power and subvert democracy, with the Fed as one tool. It reviews US business cycles (1787, explaining why cycle became tame following 1942. It identifies monopolies and poor information as contributing to slower growth. It attributes the dramatic improvement in living standards, the welfare state, unionization, democratization, and the record-setting economic growth in the wake of World War II to plutocracy's fright of a communist takeover. Hence, when communism receded in the 1980s, the Thatcher-Reagan counter-revolution began repealing those reforms to increase the share of plutocracy in GDP, causing increased inequality, slower growth, and permitting monopolies to increase their rate of return. Hence, Professor Piketty's argument that worsening inequality is caused by r>g (i.e. the rate of return is greater than the growth rate) is not valid because it confuses cause with effect. Finally, it examines the erosion of democracy and proposes an index to monitor democratic trends. Part IV is the invaluable contribution of this book. To avoid prohibitively costly banking crises, it recommends equity financing to replace debt, remodeling banking, and a Pigovian excise tax on interest, a negative externality and, effectively, a financial pollutant. It considers corporate income tax irrational for discriminating against efficiency (profitability), sheltering inefficiency, and slowing growth; it offers replacing it with a tax on corporate capital with similar revenue. It suggests streamlining personal taxes to two: a tax on earned income and a proportional tax on personal capital. Finally, it proposes a onetime tax on extreme wealth to stop the hijacking of democracy by plutocracy. Part V looks at the storms gathering over the West's horizon and the likely tectonic shifts in political power to follow. "Two Centuries of Parasitic Economics " warns of impending rebellions across Western democracies, a delayed reaction to the Thatcher-Reagan counter-revolution and its associated parasitic economics. The Sanders and Trump phenomena in the US, the UK exiting the EU, and the brewing political upheavals across Europe confirm this. Christ advocated morality, but its economic efficiency has eluded economists for centuries. Al-Nakeeb explains morality as a positive economic externality and immorality as a negative one, making a compelling case for the economic efficiency of morality and balancing self-interest and societal-interest. He shows that Christ's ban on usury, for example, is the superior economic policy because usury's social cost far exceeds its nominal interest, causing market failure: it deepens recessions producing losses of millions of homes and jobs, increases risk, depresses growth, requires hugely costly bank bailouts, and undermines democracy itself by increasing bankers' power. Hence, usury is a negative externality that is best classified as a financial pollutant. Christ also called for the rich to look after the poor. This command was implicitly adopted in the aftermath of World War II, with spectacular results. Between 1946 and 1969, the economic dividend of better economic equality was the best US economic performance on record: brief recessions, low unemployment, strong unions, rapidly rising wages and corporate profits, brisk economic growth, greatly expanded welfare benefits, and mild inflation. The flaw in that otherwise excellent economic policy was that it was not driven by morality but by alarm at the spread of communism. Following World War II, communism engulfed numerous countries, from Eastern Europe to China and beyond. Moreover, it was gaining mass support in countries like Germany, Italy, France, Greece, Korea, and Japan. A return to the poverty stricken conditions of the 1930s and earlier risked giving communism the fuel to sweep the West and confiscate the wealth of the plutocracy (the ultra-rich holding the strings of power). Thus, the benevolent economic and political democracy that emerged in the West was plutocracy's insurance policy against revolution. Without appreciating morality's economic efficiency, moral economics was embraced reluctantly as a temporary measure. Hence, when communism waned in the 1980s and no longer threatened capitalism, the Thatcher-Reagan counter revolution relaunched parasitic economics to increase the share of the ultra-rich in the economic pie by rescinding the economic and democratic gains of the working class over the previous three decades, causing rising unemployment, falling real wages, and faltering growth. Other examples of the economic efficiency of morality and the inefficiency of immorality abound, but economists misinterpret them. Thus, Paul Volker, the Fed Chairman during the Carter and Reagan administrations, is mistakenly credited with curing a cost push inflation, using parasitic economics: punitive interest rates triggered two hugely costly and unnecessary recessions. Inflation ultimately fell due to surplus oil: gushing new oil supplies, improving fuel efficiency of the car pool, and better energy management, forced oil prices lower. The forgoing illustrates that the long-stagnant subject of macroeconomics is in bad need of an overhaul to incorporate the economics of morality (and immorality) and requires matching morally correct and economically efficient financial instruments, taxes, and public expenditure and monetary policies. Accordingly, this book has dedicated six chapters to spell out this alternative macroeconomic architecture. Moreover, now is a critical juncture because another major financial crisis is looming and the tired old economic counter measures of parasitic economics are mere sedatives that cure nothing. Hence, economic crises keep reappearing and more aggravated.

from The Author Of The Phenomenal New York Times Bestseller, confessions Of An Economic Hit Man, Comes An Exposé Of International Corruption, And An Inspired Plan To Turn The Tide For Future Generations

with A Presidential Election Around The Corner, Questions Of America's Military Buildup, Environmental Impact, And Foreign Policy Are On Everyone's Mind. Former Economic Hit Man John Perkins Goes Behind The Scenes Of The Current Geopolitical Crisis And Offers Bold Solutions To Our Most Pressing Problems. Drawing On Interviews With Other Ehms, Jackals, Cia Operatives, Reporters, Businessmen, And Activists, Perkins Reveals The Secret History Of Events That Have Created The Current American Empire, Including:
 

• how The Defeats In Vietnam And Iraq Have Benefited Big Business
• the Role Of Israel As Fortress America In The Middle East
• tragic Repercussions Of The Imf's Asian Economic Collapse
• the Current Latin American Revolution And Its Lessons For Democracy
• u.s. Blunders In Tibet, Congo, Lebanon, And Venezuela

from The U.s. Military In Iraq To Infrastructure Development In Indonesia, From Peace Corps Volunteers In Africa To Jackals In Venezuela, Perkins Exposes A Conspiracy Of Corruption That Has Fueled Instability And Anti-americanism Around The Globe, With Consequences Reflected In Our Daily Headlines. Having Raised The Alarm, Perkins Passionately Addresses How Americans Can Work To Create A More Peaceful And Stable World For Future Generations.
  For over two centuries celebrated economists have ignored the economics of morality, overlooking it is a subtle prerequisite for economic rationality and efficiency, with grave consequences. As a result, no economic framework has emerged to ascertain the positive spillover effects of moral economics or, for that matter, the negative spillover effects of immoral economics and to measure their economic impact. Two Centuries of Parasitic Economics, through its "unified theory of macroeconomic failure", uses the concept of externalities to provide such a framework that convincingly explains the causes of the current economic malaise and the deepening economic crisis in the West.To illustrate, economists have dismissed the banning of interest as a mere religious affair, overlooking its grave negative externality: substantially all major economic crises in the past two centuries can be traced to indebtedness and interest, including the Great Depression, the twin Volker recessions in the... growth,national debt,plutocracy,deindustrialization,capital tax,alternate banking,dollar exchange rate,economic dogma,social security tax,taxing interest "Economic hit men, John Perkins writes, are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. John Perkins should knowhe was an economic hit man. His job was to convince countries that are strategically important to the U.S.from Indonesia to Panamato accept enormous loans for infrastructure development, and to make sure that the lucrative projects were contracted to U. S. corporations. Saddled with huge debts, these countries came under the control of the United States government, World Bank and other U.S.-dominated aid agencies that acted like loan sharksdictating repayment terms and bullying foreign governments into submission. This New York Times bestseller exposes international intrigue, corruption, and little-known government and corporate activities that have dire consequences for American democracy and the world. It is a compelling story that also offers hope and a vision for realizing the American dream of a just and compassionate world that will bring us greater security. "This intriguing detective work skillfully weaves economics with politics, psychology, and history in an accessible and absorbing style to answer the puzzling questions. Why have ruling elites subjected people to poverty throughout history? Why in the aftermath of World War II did Western establishments, after centuries of autocracy, pursue economic and political democracy only to reverse course in 1980? Why is the Fed pumping and bursting bubbles in stocks, real estate, and now bonds and, without informing Congress, extending $16 trillion dollar loans? Why do leading western politician, economists, universities, and even Nobel Prize committees endorse bad economics, causing industrial erosion, mushrooming debts, anemic growth, and deepening recessions, which seed the fall of great powers?" -- Provided by publisher The Power Shakespeares Political Plays is a study of Shakespeares History and Roman Plays which identifies references to key political issues of the Elizabethan age that Shakespeare could not have addressed straight-on without falling foul of the Privy Council. The author also ventures to make thought provoking comparisons with present day governance which call into question the conduct of the modern political class. Ben Jonson wrote that Shakespeare was not of an age, but for all time! These plays, and the light they cast on the nature of power, continue to have an exigent and immediate bearing on the business of governance in our time. "The key to social dynamics that Marx found in wealth and Freud in sex, Bertrand Russell finds in power. This brilliant study brings a new order of comprehension into the problems of human government." "Russell analyses the forms that power can take, and the limits and interactions of its different organs. He discusses the effects of ideas and moral codes in buttressing or undermining power. Russell finally explains how power can, and must, be tamed." "This volume includes a new introduction by Kirk Willis, University of Georgia."--BOOK JACKET "The key to human nature that Marx found in wealth and Freud in sex, Bertrand Russell finds in power. Power, he argues, is man's ultimate goal, and is in its many guises the single most important element in the development of any society." A former consultant to the U.S. government reveals the inner workings of the high-stakes economic game that encourages Third World economies to borrow money so that major corporations like Halliburton end up getting the contracts.