We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Speculation for its own sake pays billions

Click here to access article by Pete Dolack from his blog Systemic Disorder.

Dolack describes how today's super-capitalists use algorithms, obscure derivative investments, and high speed trading to obtain wealth from the efforts of workers worldwide. They are increasingly insulated from real work, real workers, and the consequence of their actions. Their sole focus is on increasing their wealth by using these instruments. For them Wall Street and all the other trading exchanges have become merely casinos at which they place bets. 

Dolack takes us on a brief tour of their world which is totally divorced from our world and the world of the billions of people throughout the globe whose daily lives are impacted by the kind of bets these players place at their casinos. This is the world of the "invisible hand" working its magic in the 21st century. So what if the unwashed billions suffer poverty, exploitation, become refugees from the horrors of wars, have their farms and lands stolen from them by banks and and corporations, or forced from their land because of extreme weather due to climate destabilization?