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March 19, 2007 at 19:00:52

"Economics of Empire"

by Alan MacDonald     Page 2 of 2 page(s)

www.opednews.com

 
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For a single global corporate/financial Empire the issues of increasing exploitation of real resource and asset wealth on a global basis presents an increasingly dangerous balancing game of exploiting traditional ‘nation states’ both near and far from the Empire’s nominal home base ---- made even more precarious by the ever growing needs for wealth input to the Empire’s Ponzi pyramid.  Like all traditional financial Ponzi schemes, this ever growing need for greater incoming funds becomes a nervous balancing act that as it grows monstrously must eventually collapse.  Of course any pathology of unnatural growth, whether biological, like metastasizing cancer, or of a global financial Empire, which exhausts its host environment, is ultimately unsustainable and must collapse.

Since the global corporate Empire which began its growth center in the US has already exploited the natural commonwealth of the US and it citizens to what the CIA identifies as a level endangering ‘social unrest” (GINI .45), any further economic exploitation would seem to be necessarily done beyond close proximity with the Empire ----- that is, remote in either time or space.

Luckily corporations, and particularly the global corporate Empire, is very practiced in delaying the collapse of Ponzi schemes by materializing profits through the magic of hiding costs over both time and space.  Enron famously buried costs (expenses) to appear much more profitable than it was, but their methodology was gross accounting fraud.  The preferred and perfected way that corporations hide costs and thus increase private profits to the upper reaches of their Ponzi pyramid scheme is by ‘gaming’ the known market failure of ‘negative externalities’.

Simply stated, undertaking economic actions that generate superficial 'private profits' to the actor, while dumping large negative externality 'social costs' on others, has been perfected as the preferred dirty, but profitable corporate business model.  [EG. cigarette companies easily generate high private profits by simply hiding and avoiding the massive health costs of cigarettes in their customers lungs for years as 'social costs'.  Oil corporations do the same (Exxon $40B) by selling gasoline and hiding the negative externality costs in our climate over centuries].  Recently, private equity pirates and hedge fund bandits have developed a newer and novel negative externality pumping/dumping scheme for doing the same thing by stripping assets, monetizing them (creating gold out of air) and then dumping a debt bomb on the world.  Innumerable variations on this seminal strategy of hiding or ‘socializing’ negative externality costs to increase and ‘privatize’ profit flowing into large scale global Ponzi schemes are widely varied and can hide the externality costs far from the doorstep of the empire by moving them forward in ‘time’ or by removing them geographically in ‘space’.

The only problem with running any global Empire which constantly increases private profits by dumping massively increasing negative externality costs on the whole world is that the people and countries being hurt the most may object strongly, and thus the need for what General Smedley Butler so impolitely called "military musclemen".  But, of course, a global corporate/financial elite Empire which has set itself off on this expanding Ponzi scheme can't stop and doesn't want to actually have to pay for the military muscle, and that's where controlling a formerly sovereign nation-state that happens to be a 'super power' comes in handy.

In summary, the global Empire exists, and it "pays off" for the empire itself because they always pump increasing profits to themselves and in a one-way stream pump most costs on everyone else.  And those who might argue with the empire's methods get a sharp lance in the eye --- at no cost to the empire.   The lance is delivered by military force in wars (or domestic controls) that are justified as necessary in the vague (GWOT) Global War on Terror against terrorists everywhere, and this military power is endorsed by the political charade of a “Vichy America” government which is totally and guilefully controlled by the global Empire, but finally the benefits of this entire military political economic structure are dimly viewable through the reality of the “Economics of Empire”.

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Former computer/communications marketing and product strategist. Currently teaching part time in retirement.

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5 comments

Been around the block a few times.
Blue PilgrimBeen around the block a few times.

globalization

There is a bad side to it, but also this: as the world 'shrinks' to a global 'village' (easy travel and communications, and worldwide connetive networking) the colonies are not so far removed (and therefore ignorable) as in previous times. This leads toa problem with empire: a nation cannot colonize itself; that transforms into domestic slavery, which is very unstable. The imperialists end up fouling their own nests; the snake eats itself.   

Control of the news is critical for the war mongers, for once the Americans begin to identify with the exploited people of the 'enemy' nations, the game is up.

by Blue Pilgrim (0 articles, 3 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 997 comments) on Monday, March 19, 2007 at 9:08:02 PM
 


Former computer/communications marketing and product strategist. Currently teaching part time in retirement.
Alan MacDonaldFormer computer/communications marketing and product strategist. Currently teaching part time in retirement.

Thanks for your valid input, pilgrim

Yes, the distinction between people (even poor people) within the 'citizenry' of the empire and those outside in the 'territories' is best explained by a line that Raul Julia states in the movie, "Havana", "there are the torturable and the non-torturable".

Within the "Vichy America" facade that the Empire controls the most recent and compelling example of your point about insiders begining to identify with outsiders may well be the poor and ignored residents of New Orleans diaster identifying with Iraqis in Baghdad ---- both being similarly oppressed and treated like useless dirt by the Empire.

 

 

by Alan MacDonald (10 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 71 comments) on Monday, March 19, 2007 at 10:01:42 PM
 


Jon Harrison is a freelance writer living in Vermont.
Jon HarrisonJon Harrison is a freelance writer living in Vermont.

MacDonald's Economics of Empire

"By definition an empire is self-referential"

"essentially limitless lust"

"transitive property"

"negative externality costs" 

And my favorite: ". . . an infinitely expandable and symbolic representation of greatness in the form of wealth creates the basis and mechanism of institutionalizing an elitist grasp for hierarchy beyond that demonstrated by genuine personal qualities of leadership within one society."

Wow! This is a parody, right? An essay meant to seem as if written by a pompous, unintelligible, pseudo-intellectual, right? The author teaches part-time? Comedy, I hope! Please don't say it's expository writing, or plain English!

 

 

by Jon Harrison (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 17 comments) on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 at 7:21:11 PM
 


Former computer/communications marketing and product strategist. Currently teaching part time in retirement.
Alan MacDonaldFormer computer/communications marketing and product strategist. Currently teaching part time in retirement.

Truth hurts

Jon, I would be lying if I said that your criticism of my column did not hurt. 

But the truth is that I am not a degreed economist, so your criticism of my discussion of the market failure of externalities may not be up to snuff ---- would you suggest any improvements to my admittedly less-than-elite academic discriptions of this area of economics for clarity?

I would also readily admit that my level of teaching is quite limited and does not even attempt to address or discuss in high school subbing any areas of economics, political economics, or historical empires.  These are issues which I only wrestle with as an ordinary citizen without any elite educational knowledge. 

I should also apologise if my writing style seems pompous or unintelligible as I tried to describe my thoughts.  Although your criticism was a bit harsher than any english professor I can recall from my college days, I will take your input to heart as constructive criticism.

However, I was a bit puzzled about what in my column might have most caused you to comment so stirringly?

I could not read your feature article in "Liberty" because it is not accessible on-line and I am not a subscriber.  Congratulations on your article in any case --- I'm sure it is very good.

From publication in which it appeared and title of your article, "Why the Surge Will Fail", I assume that you are both libertarian and anti-war, and thus would not have been at all aroused at my attacking of war, empire or elitism ---- and I certainly didn't try to hide or disguise my real intent, as some authors do.

So, Jon, I am still a bit confused about the motivation of your obviously strongly held feelings regarding any substantive comments on the content of my op-ed, and will assume that you were only giving me some very generalized advice on my writing style and economic simplicities ------ unless you would care to further enlighten me. 

I certainly would appreciate any advice from you as to how I might improve the next op-ed news article in the series that I am writing, which deals with  how average people might overcome empire with the very ecomonics that empire itself uses to oppress them ---- working title, "With their own Rope". 

Any ideas or suggestions, Jon?

Thanks in advance for your more experienced publication advice. 

by Alan MacDonald (10 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 71 comments) on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 at 12:43:15 PM
 


Jon Harrison is a freelance writer living in Vermont.
Jon HarrisonJon Harrison is a freelance writer living in Vermont.

"Truth hurts"

In the sometimes very harsh world of literary criticism, very cutting things are said. Let me say that I made an assumption based on your prose style that you were a particular literary/intellectual type. I can tell from your response that I was wrong about that. So let me begin by apologizing for that assumption.

We are all as thinking individuals trying to grapple with the problems facing our society and the world. We express ourselves in the hope that we may enlighten others, and receive enlightenment in return. That your essay was an attempt to be a part of that continuum, I now realize. I would never want to discourage a sincere individual from making this effort. Therefore, I apologize to you again, this time for causing you hurt. I am pained by the fact that you found my comments hurtful, and I'm sorry. You deserved better.

I am not going to dispute issues or facts with you in this forum. But I will give you a few tips, if you will allow me.

Words, Churchill said, should convey meaning. It is very important to say what one thinks in the simplest language possible. Everyone has their own style, and you must not deviate too much from your personal inclinations when you write. Nevertheless, it is generally best to: 1) use short, declarative sentences; 2) employ words we all use in conversation, rather than ten-dollar words that send your readers running to the dictionary; 3) keep your use of adjectives to a minimum (if in doubt; don't use it).

It is very important also to back up broad statements with specific examples. A sentiment expressed ought to be justified by the presentation of facts, not by a further expression of one's ideological inclinations, however sincerely felt. One need not write to preach to the converted. Seek out and bring to the reader that which will convince those inclined to disagree with you. That is how one makes a good argument.

One can never do enough research. (Of course, at some point you must sit down to write.) And in researching, seek out information from those who  oppose your own views, rather than those who will simply confirm what you believe.

I'm sorry that you couldn't access my article online. If you contact me I will be happy to send you a copy. I write often for Liberty; you can find feature articles of mine from Aug. and Dec. 2006, and Mar. 2007 that are accessible in Liberty's online archive.

I am anti-Iraq war, and anti-Bush. I am a libertarian (with a small l). Though a person of the right, I have friends on the left as well. No ideology or program has the answer for every question; wisdom may walk in through any door, anytime.

My email address is jwhinvt@adelphia.net. Please feel free to contact me for further discussion, if you like.

Sincerely,

Jon Harrison 

  

    

 

 

by Jon Harrison (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 17 comments) on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 at 6:26:01 PM
 

 

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