{"id":41825,"date":"2018-12-20T07:11:04","date_gmt":"2018-12-20T12:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=41825"},"modified":"2018-12-20T07:11:04","modified_gmt":"2018-12-20T12:11:04","slug":"america-has-a-neo-feudal-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=41825","title":{"rendered":"America Has a \u201cNeo-feudal\u201d System"},"content":{"rendered":"
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America Has a \u201cNeo-feudal\u201d System<\/a><\/h3>\n

The conventional definition of a Bear is someone who expects stocks to decline. For those of us who are bearish on fake fixes, that definition doesn\u2019t apply: we aren\u2019t making guesses about future market gyrations (rip-your-face-off rallies, dizziness-inducing drops, boring melt-ups, etc.).<\/p>\n

No, we\u2019re focused on the impossibility of reforming or fixing a broken economic system.<\/p>\n

Many observers confuse creative destruction with profoundly structural problems. The technocrat perspective views the creative disruption of existing business models by the digital-driven 4th Industrial Revolution as the core cause of rising income inequality, under-employment, the decline of low-skilled jobs, etc. \u2014 many of the problems that plague the current economy.<\/p>\n

I get it: those disruptive consequences are real. But they aren\u2019t structural: crony capitalism and the state-cartel system is structural, because cartels can buy political protection from competition and disruptive technologies. Just look at all the cartels that have eliminated competition: higher education, defense contractors, Big Pharma \u2014 the list is long.<\/p>\n

The fake fixes to the structural dominance of cartels and entrenched elites come in two flavors: political reforms that add complexity (oversight, compliance, etc.) but never threaten the insiders\u2019 skims and scams. And monetary policies such as low interest rates and unlimited liquidity that enrich the already-wealthy by funneling whatever gains are being reaped to them rather than to labor.<\/p>\n

I explain how this neo-feudal economy is the inevitable result of our system in my new book Pathfinding our Destiny: Preventing the Final Fall of Our Democratic Republic.<\/em><\/p>\n

Our political system, dependent on campaign contributions and lobbying, is easily influenced to protect and enhance the private gains of corporations and financiers. Combine this with the gains reaped by those with access to cheap credit and you have a financial nobility ruling a class of debt-serfs.<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

America Has a \u201cNeo-feudal\u201d System The conventional definition of a Bear is someone who expects stocks to decline. For those of us who are bearish on fake fixes, that definition doesn\u2019t apply: we aren\u2019t making guesses about future market gyrations (rip-your-face-off rallies, dizziness-inducing drops, boring melt-ups, etc.). No, we\u2019re focused on the impossibility of reforming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[20283,127,182,11023,1849,7081,23251,827],"class_list":["post-41825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-cartels","tag-charles-hugh-smith","tag-crony-capitalism","tag-daily-reckoning","tag-financial-markets","tag-neofeudalism","tag-state-cartel-system","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41826,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41825\/revisions\/41826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}