nuclear-news

America is run by gangs – military, industrial, oil, ….

the takeover of political power in America by the
”corporatocracy”.
First is the well-known military-industrial complex. ”As [President]
Eisenhower famously warned in his farewell address in January 1961,
the linkage of the military and private industry created a political
power so pervasive that America has been condemned to militarisation,
useless wars and fiscal waste on a scale of many tens of trillions of
dollars since then,” he says.

The four business gangs that run the US, The Age, December 31, 2012 Ross Gittins

The Sydney Morning Herald’s Economics Editor IF YOU’VE ever suspected
politics is increasingly being run in the interests of big business, I
have news: Jeffrey Sachs, a highly respected economist from Columbia
University, agrees with you – at least in respect of the United
States.
In his book, The Price of Civilisation, he says the US economy is
caught in a feedback loop. ”Corporate wealth translates into
political power through campaign financing, corporate lobbying and the
revolving door of jobs between government and industry; and political
power translates into further wealth through tax cuts, deregulation
and sweetheart contracts between government and industry. Wealth
begets power, and power begets wealth,” he says.
Sachs says four key sectors of US business exemplify this feedback
loop and the takeover of political power in America by the
”corporatocracy”.
First is the well-known military-industrial complex. ”As [President]
Eisenhower famously warned in his farewell address in January 1961,
the linkage of the military and private industry created a political
power so pervasive that America has been condemned to militarisation,
useless wars and fiscal waste on a scale of many tens of trillions of
dollars since then,” he says.

Second is the Wall Street-Washington complex which has steered the
financial system towards control by a few politically powerful Wall
Street firms…..
Third is the Big Oil-transport-military complex, which has put the US
on the trajectory of heavy oil-imports dependence and a deepening
military trap in the Middle East, ……
”And Big Oil has played a notorious role in the fight to keep climate
change off the US agenda. Exxon-Mobil, Koch Industries and others in
the sector have underwritten a generation of anti-scientific
propaganda to confuse the American people.”…..
Fourth is the healthcare industry……
The 30-year achievement of the corporatocracy has been the creation of
America’s rich and super-rich classes, he says. And we can now see
their tools of trade….
Fortunately, things aren’t nearly so bad in Australia. But it will
require vigilance to stop them sliding further in that direction.

http://www.theage.com.au/business/the-four-business-gangs-that-run-the-us-20121230-2c1e2.html#ixzz2GgRP76jt

December 31, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA