Money is above all
On the shadow sides of the global economy.
The modern world is characterized by a dominant influence on all aspects of the life of society in the financial sector. It can even be said that the world of the beginning of the 21st century is the world of financial capitalism. It is radically different from the world that was even in the last century. Money, banks, finance existed before, but they did not occupy such a significant position as it can be seen today.
Get at least the price of oil and gold. Traditionally, it is assumed that the prices of these commodities are based on real supply and demand. However, in the pricing process today finances occupy a decisive place - mainly fake exchange speculations. During the acute phase of the global financial and economic crisis, from August 2008 of the year to spring 2009, the price of Brent crude dropped from a historical maximum of 148 dollars to a mark of 36 dollars per barrel, that is, more than 4 times. They tried to explain to us what a drop, they say, was caused by a decrease in demand for energy, as the crisis, difficult times, and consume less ...
However, it is difficult to imagine that, all over the world, oil, literally over the course of 5-6 months, began to be consumed in 4 times less! For some reason, they also forgot that the crisis began in the field of finance, and the transition of the financial crisis to the economy (in our case, real demand for oil) takes, according to various estimates, from 2 to 6 months. The fall was caused, first of all, by the withdrawal by financial players (banks and funds) of their funds from oil, as well as the contraction of the pyramid of complex financial instruments (so-called derivatives) to this and its derivatives.
Also formed the price of gold, silver, platinum, and a hundred more different commodities. But the filling of the Russian budget, and, consequently, the stability and security of the entire Russian economy, depends on changes in the price of oil.
At present, a clan of the world elite has formed on the top of the West - people, alone or together, able to influence the destinies of millions of people. Moreover, those who gained power as a result of the merging of business and government, the owners of transnational corporations and banks (TNCs and TNBs) and other structures are now actively contributing to the globalization process. This gradually leads to the loss of influence of national governments in favor of globalism and the formation of various supranational constructions.
Former US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner recalls when he faced a mortgage crisis in the 2007-2008 years: “What we did was bring together the 14 main companies, their main controllers, a group of the largest global institutions and their managers from four countries. They were told: "Guys, you have to solve this problem ..." These 14 firms were responsible for about 95 percent of the entire market. There were also their supervisors - the US Federal Reserve, the US Securities Market Commission, the UK Financial Services Authority, the Swiss and the Germans. ”
The world in certain sectors is manageable. If you focus on large global-scale 10-20 institutions, you can see that they almost completely control a particular sector of the economy. The chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, jokingly called these 14 firms “fourteen families”, as in “The Godfather”.
Geithner's predecessor and current vice-president of Merill Lynch, Bill McDonough, says the following: “bankers from central banks work well together because they spend a lot of time together. As it happens at the private meetings of the main central bankers at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel (representatives of the central banks 26 of the world meet twice a month) and at the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank. They just become friends. ”
Currently, a growing number of organizations with a supranational structure. The market is increasingly acquiring an international scale. Corporations take on an economic and social role that sometimes doesn’t yield to or even surpass the role of states.
For example, in 2008, global GDP was estimated at $ 61 trillion (historical maximum), while the total sales of 250 leading world companies exceeded $ 15 trillion. The total sales of the two thousand largest corporations in the world is $ 27 trillion, and their assets are $ 103 trillion. The total sales of the first five (Wal-Mart, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, British Petroleum, General Motors) reached almost one and a half trillion - no country in the world has more GDP than the seven richest.
One of the greatest strengths of modern TNCs is that they most often represent a whole network - its sphere of influence extends far beyond the legal limits of the formal structure of the organization itself. Top financial leaders understand the situation too well so as not to play hard games with each other. The well-being of all depends on the successful functioning of the system as a whole. Being inside the system, there is no need to violate the rules of the game. The world community has learned to promote the globalization of markets, at the same time convincing everyone of the advantages of the idea of complete self-regulation, at best, accompanied by easy government supervision. The heads of TNCs and TNBs have the power to influence the lives of billions of people.
Global elites are united by the emerging single culture: the increasingly widespread English language, the global popularity of certain sources of information (quality sources for themselves and other sources of “white noise” for all others), etc. The cohesion of the so-called global class is ensured by mechanisms of exclusive access, including family ties, university dating, membership in closed organizations, for example, the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Features of the modern world economy
So, if initially the main goal of the economy and, accordingly, economic knowledge is to ensure normal and fair housekeeping so that the basic basic needs of a person are provided. So in the modern world, the economy has turned into something else. Aristotle called it chrematistics - that is, the science of the increase of wealth. The very principle of modern financial capitalism, when money makes money for money. The main thing is that for a modern person such a state of affairs seems to be completely normal.
For example, the GDP of Luxembourg (as a financial center) at the end of 2012 of the year amounted to 42 billion dollars, the government debt of all 18,5 percent of GDP. However, the total debt (debt external), which includes the corporation and the financial sector, is 2,146 trillion dollars (as of 30 in June of 2011), and this is not less than 5100 percent of the country's GDP. The example speaks for itself, but the Western economic school considers this fact to be completely normal, explaining that Luxembourg is a financial center.
Here are the key principles of the world economy and international finance:
- the primacy of profit and the metaphysics of money (money is the goal);
- merging of transnational capital with public administration;
- dominance in the world economy of financial markets;
- financial psychology of markets. Manipulation of consciousness through media channels, statements of “recognized leaders” (U. Buffett, J. Soros, P. Krugman, M. Wulf, etc.);
- expansion of the market of derivative financial instruments (derivatives) without reference to the real commercial and industrial sphere of the economy. The turnover of exchange derivatives (only futures and options), according to the Bank for International Settlements, amounted to 2,25 quadrillion dollars (1 quadrillion is equal to 1000 trillions) with the value of the underlying assets of about 100 trillion dollars. OTC derivatives are estimated several orders of magnitude higher;
- the ability to create financial bubbles. Before the financial collapse of 2000, the total capitalization of companies in the US market, on average, was 30-35 times their net income. In the market of high-tech companies (NASDAQ), capitalization exceeded net income by more than 200 times, and for Internet companies - more than 1000. The extent to which market assessments have been divorced from reality is shown by the fact that from 1992 to 1999, the value of one share of America Online, an Internet service provider, has increased by a factor of 925;
- the fact of the existence of hedge funds, as key institutions of financial capitalism, the purpose of which is to maximize profits in any way;
- active work of private equity funds, mutual funds, sovereign wealth funds and many other types of so-called. investment intermediaries;
- offshore global economy;
- the power of banking capital (trillion transnational banking business) and transnational monopolism (TNC);
- regulation of international activities exclusively by Western institutions, such as the Financial Stability Board, IMF, WB, WTO, FATF, G20, G8, G7, Bank for International Settlements, etc .;
- monopoly on the information space (Bloomberg, CNBC, BBC, CNN, Fox news, Sky news, The Economist, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and many others);
- a network of global financial centers (Wall Street, City of London, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc.);
- a network of global central banks with a single control center in the Fed (USA) and the Bank for International Settlements (Basel);
- a system of rating agencies that control 95 percent of the rating services market (Standard and Poor's, Moody's, Fitch);
- a system of political think tanks (think tanks - Chatham House, Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), The Carnegie Center and many others) and higher professional education systems that promote the free market economic ideology;
Thus, a full-fledged ideological field of modern international finance is formed.
The role of the media
It is important to note the possibility of managing the economy through the media.
In the USA, for example, CNBC channel plays a leading role in “hinting” where to invest money, the number of viewers (active in the financial market) of which can reach 7 million people. Broadcasting of this channel is organized in the operating rooms of stock exchanges and broker premises, health clubs, restaurants, flower shops, oil rigs, factories, student dormitories, jurors' rooms and even prisons. Developing, CNBC had an increasing influence on the decision-making process in the stock markets. As a result, the focus from ordinary information on the state of the markets shifted to covering the opinions of exchange traders and finally became fixed on them. As a result, objectivity in the evaluation of certain investments is lost, finally being replaced by evaluative subjectivism.
Passions, caused by greed and despair, conquer reason not in one person, but in hundreds. People who are cold-blooded and prudent in the same situation, can together neglect any safety rules. So you can artificially increase the price of a particular asset, derail the company's shares or, as practiced by hedge funds, make money on a specially caused fall in the market.
The most interesting thing is that in the West, although there is criticism of the free market model itself, it is still accepted by the overwhelming majority of the population and the expert community without significant reservations. Such a system is becoming the norm, although such, from our point of view, cannot be.
In this regard, we can give one radical example. Even before the attack on the USSR, Adolf Hitler spoke unequivocally about the fate of Russia he had prepared: “Given the size of the Russian spaces, it would not be enough to defeat the enemy’s armed forces to end the war. The whole territory of Russia should be divided into a number of states with their own governments, ready to conclude peace treaties with us ...
The Slavs were created in order to work for the Germans, and for nothing more. Our goal is to settle one hundred million Germans in the places of their current residence. German authorities should be housed in the best buildings, and governors should live in palaces. Around the provincial centers within a radius of 30 - 40 kilometers will be located belts of beautiful German villages connected to the center by good roads. On the other side of this belt there will be another world. Let the Russians live there, as they are used to. We will take only the best of their land. In the swamps let the Slavic natives indulge. It would be best for us if they were generally explained on the fingers. But, unfortunately, this is not possible. Therefore - to limit everything as much as possible! No prints. The simplest broadcasts. We must wean them to think. No compulsory schooling. It must be understood that literacy of Russians, Ukrainians and all sorts of others is only harmful. There will always be a pair of bright heads that will find ways to study their history, then come to political conclusions, which, in the end, will be directed against us. Therefore, gentlemen, do not try to organize any radio broadcasts on historical topics in the occupied regions. No! In each village in the square there is a loudspeaker post to communicate news and entertain the listeners. Yes, to entertain and distract from attempts to gain political, scientific, and in general any knowledge. The radio should transmit as much simple, rhythmic and fun music as possible. She invigorates and increases the ability to work. "
Today the situation is almost the same, only instead of the lack of information, its flows are monopolized by a monetary ideology, a financial civilization. In the role of loudspeakers serves so-called. market mainstream - the mass media already mentioned above and enjoying great prestige in the West.
The formatting of the intellectual space takes place at the most skillful and high level, penetrates into the sphere of the spirit. People think themselves exclusively in a given information field. Anything that goes beyond the framework is immediately recognized as heresy, or is not taken seriously.
To reform something, you need to understand it.
One head of the world's largest transnational bank, sitting in his office in Washington next to the White House, once said: “At present, the asymmetry in understanding how the global economy works is between the lawmakers, businessmen, and technologists as vast as the Atlantic Ocean. How do you think, how many of the current legislators have at least a rough idea of what the average CEO of a multinational corporation knows about the world? So national governments have a problem: how can you regulate something that you don’t understand? And if the government is not able to do what should ... this will be the business community. ”
Under the influence of those who rule over national borders, national governments, and most importantly people, TNK and TNB, world development is shifting towards globalism. New forces are concentrated - they are merged and mutually integrate with each other, with power, with a monetary monopoly. Capture new markets, get new technologies. Traditional things are being questioned. And national governments at this time are stuck in bureaucracy and remain unarmed against global transnational and merciless capital.
What can be done
First. It is necessary to understand the fact that there is a gap between liberal knowledge (free market, money, double standards) and social values-oriented (principles of justice, providing people with necessary goods, lack of worship of money as the highest value, etc.). Realize the significance of this split in the modern world of economics and finance.
Second. It is necessary to understand what is happening in the West - what is liberalism, a market economy, who is the beneficiary, what are the main sources of liberal knowledge. It is important to study the history of the formation of financial capitalism. To do this consistently, scrupulously, clearly. Enemy need to know in person.
The third. It is necessary to recall those layers of economic knowledge that have already been created by our ancestors. This is a Christian economy, autarky of large spaces, some developments in the field of planned economy.
Fourth. Clearly state the financial and economic architecture of the modern world. Understand the causes of the global financial and economic crisis. From this point of view, it will be possible to talk about any reform.
The fifth. To determine the role of Russia in these processes. Outline an exit strategy, effective coexistence with the existing world architecture, or come to building your own autarky - the Common Economic Space (CES) and the Regional Financial Center (RFC). The SES and RFC ideally should serve not the interests of world speculative finance capital, not the interests of TNK, TNB, hedge funds and other financial structures, but work exclusively for the interests of the economies of Russia and the CIS countries, contributing to the formation of a single self-sufficient economic system, primarily on human needs.
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