The Monarchy of Money

I am a capitalist and a democrat-the former describes my approach to economics, and the latter my belief in the democratic form of government. I don't see these two to be mutually exclusive although I think it is important that a democratic government maintain a sharp vigilance on the activities of it's capitalists.

For that is where I think we have gone wrong. We have allowed the titans of industry with their catechism of free trade, little government, deregulation, competition and the "invisible hand" of the market to create new kingdoms in which their economic might has muted if not outright circumvented the democratic practice.

We have replaced the absolutism of monarchy with the absolutism of wealth. Unfortunately the only way, other than revolution, to combat this tends to be through the mechanism of populism. I don't have a problem with the concept of populism in a vacuum because it is a form of democracy. In practice however, even when begun from the left-it tends to start out from a social/communal aspect-it generally ends up on the right under the manipulation/direction of the "invisible hand" of vested interests.

So I am not promoting populism. I am promoting responsible government which frees itself from the dictates of wealthy special interest groups. Government which develops an industrial policy which is focused on ensuring that there is an industrial policy dedicated to an environmentally aware industrial platform whose primary interest is the welfare of the people it represents.

This does not mean that we pursue a beggar-thy-neighbour policy. This does mean that we don't pursue a beggar-thy-self policy in the pursuit of profits for the few at the expense of the many.

I am aware that the (American)titans of industry- and finance is an industry, perhaps the most powerful and therefore the most insidious of industries-honed their skill and power in the United States, and have now transferred their experience to the global stage. That is why I am extremely cautious about recommending protectionism/isolationism in the USA if all that were to achieve is narrow the playing field but keeps the same "players".

When I reflect on Eisenhower's warning of the dangers presented by the Military-Industrial Complex I am terrified to see how right he was-the privatisation of the military for one-but I don't think he ever envisaged the damage that would be done to the USA by the American multinationals with Finance in the vanguard.

This Monarchy of Money must be tempered if the entire planet is not to become a third-world country, the USA included, where there is an oligopoly of the super-rich, a collapse of the middle-class, and a sea of destitution for 98% of the world's population.