The Four Big Business Gangs That Run The US, page 1

Evening folks.

As we all know, corporations and private interests have been given a green light in campaign financing to influence elections. They for years have manipulated public policy and changed political landscape.

Not only do conspiracy theorists now believe this, but economists as well. Actually, one in particular, wrote a whole book about it.

Jeffrey Sachs Economic Professor at Columbia, along with various other accolates asserts there are 4 major industries that control the US.

From his book The Price of Civilisation:

Source For Article

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.

Second is the Wall Street-Washington complex, which has steered the financial system towards control by a few politically powerful Wall Street firms, notably Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and a handful of other financial firms.

These days, almost every US Treasury secretary - Republican or Democrat - comes from Wall Street and goes back there when his term ends. The close ties between Wall Street and Washington ''paved the way for the 2008 financial crisis and the mega-bailouts that followed, through reckless deregulation followed by an almost complete lack of oversight by government''.

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, he says.

''Since the days of John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Trust a century ago, Big Oil has loomed large in American politics and foreign policy. Big Oil teamed up with the automobile industry to steer America away from mass transit and towards gas-guzzling vehicles driving on a nationally financed highway system.''

Fourth is the healthcare industry, America's largest industry, absorbing no less than 17 per cent of US gross domestic product.

Funny how these 4 represent the industries that your leaders are most worried of talking about. These spending industries are never on the table during budget cuts or tax increases or any sort of plan to straighten out the economy.

Yet they are the largest spenders of tax payer money.

A few VERY interesting points he makes:

Sachs says the main thing to remember about the corporatocracy is that it looks after its own. ''There is absolutely no economic crisis in corporate America.

''Consider the pulse of the corporate sector as opposed to the pulse of the employees working in it: corporate profits in 2010 were at an all-time high, chief executive salaries in 2010 rebounded strongly from the financial crisis, Wall Street compensation in 2010 was at an all-time high, several Wall Street firms paid civil penalties for financial abuses, but no senior banker faced any criminal charges, and there were no adverse regulatory measures that would lead to a loss of profits in finance, health care, military supplies and energy,'' he says.

''It began with globalisation, which pushed up capital income while pushing down wages. These changes were magnified by the tax cuts at the top, which left more take-home pay and the ability to accumulate greater wealth through higher net-of-tax returns to saving.''

When will Americans demand that their greedy politicians listen to Academics like this one? It's clear to anybody who pays attention that educated people, the truly educated, are screaming at the top of their lungs that this is not sustainable, and that the average person is being screwed.

~Tenth

reply to post by TheMindWar

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Wall Street.

Investment banks.

~Tenth

reply to post by TheMindWar

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Technically Wall Street (esp the FED) but the Banking System supplies the grease to all 4 sectors.

reply to post by Murgatroid

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1) The authors name is "Sachs" who some refer to as a globalist shill.

I highly doubt his ancestors chose that name because they knew there would be one guy, generations from now who would benefit from it..

2) He appears to be a mainstream "academics" professor.

Mainstream in what sense? That he is accomplished, respected and highly educated? What differnence does that make if his assertions are correct?

Sachs was raised in Oak Park, a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, and graduated from Oak Park High School. He attended Harvard College, where he received his B.A. summa cum laude in 1976. He went on to receive his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard, and was invited to join the Harvard Society of Fellows while still a Harvard graduate student. In 1980, he joined the Harvard faculty as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1982. A year later, at the age of 28, Sachs became a Full Professor of economics with tenure at Harvard.

During the next 19 years at Harvard, he became the Galen L. Stone Professor of International Trade, the Director of the Harvard Institute for International Development at the Kennedy School of Government (1995–1999), and the Director of the Center for International Development (1999–2002).

In 2002, Sachs left Harvard to become the Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York City. At Columbia he is the Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and is also a professor in Columbia's Department of Economics and the Department of Health Policy and Management. His classes are taught at the School of International and Public Affairs and the Mailman School of Public Health, and his course "Challenges of Sustainable Development" is taught at the undergraduate level.

In his capacity as Director of the Earth Institute, he leads a university-wide organization of more than 850 professionals from natural-science and social-science disciplines, in support of sustainable development. Sachs has consistently advocated for the expansion of University education on sustainable development, and helped to introduce the PhD in Sustainable Development at Columbia University, one of the first PhD programs of its kind in the U.S. He championed the new Masters of Development Practice (MDP), which has led to a consortium of major universities around the world offering the new degree. The Earth Institute has also guided the adoption of sustainable development as a new major at Columbia College. The Earth Institute is home to cutting-edge research on all aspects of earth systems and sustainable development.

Sachs has been a consistent critic of the IMF and its policies around the world. He has blasted the international bankers for what he sees as a pattern of ineffective investment strategies

So, with that in mind, I highly doubt he's some propagandist shill. Unless of course, you support big business and their control over politics. In which case, sure, he's like a nightmare.

3) The source is from the MSM (Sydney Morning Herald)

No, the source is his book. The article is from that website, but the referenced material is from his book.

~Tenth

reply to post by tothetenthpower

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I think most people has already internalized these realizations to some degree, what is incredible is that they can't mobilize to do something about it.

There is one missing the agro-industrial (from animal proteins to corn and soy) and the pharma and genetic but I guess they all get combined in a way or another into the 4 mentioned.

I disagree however that it started with globalization, it started during WW2 (before the end) but Wall street already controlled the government before that probably in stranglehold since the FED came into existence. Wall street at the time was probably not a US centered power that started to be so after the end of WW2 as the US took control of the world, dismantling the previous empires and colonial powers.

In any case globalization was a concept fostered by the US, promoted as an equalizer to advance lesser developed populations but ending in a blatant exploit of workforces (even in the US as the OP states), and the pressure by the US to acquire China as a market has collapsed Europe's social system. In the end only the multinational corporations have benefited, and China's government (that works like one in any case China Inc.).

reply to post by tothetenthpower

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Mainstream in what sense? That he is accomplished, respected and highly educated? What differnence does that make if his assertions are correct?

Mainstream in the sense that the vast majority of it is cleverly designed propaganda.

I'm not against the author, and I haven't even read his book...

I'm just saying that he looks VERY suspicious.

I trust NOTHING that comes out of mainstream anything...

Like SO many others, I am so sick of being lied to...

For that reason I am VERY careful about what I read and WHO I trust...

"Jeffrey Sachs is Director of the UN Millennium Project and Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan..."

The Globalist | Biography of Jeffrey D. Sachs

"Illuminati Gofer and Globalist Shill Jeffrey Sachs, wreaking havoc around the world..."

United Nations' Agenda 21 Declares War On Mankind

"Jeffrey Sachs, ideological architect of the looting of Russia through “privatization” in the 1990s... Note further that Sachs is also one of the folks, along with Joseph Stiglitz, advising OccupyWallStreet…"
mwcnews.net...

The last time Americans united in order to effect change was the 1960-70s. The pressure was OUTSIDE of politics and government, and it worked. Politicians, govt and corporations were fearful of this uprising and reacted, sometimes with violence but also with the idea that this civil uprising must be somehow diffused, either by co-opting, manufacturing consent/dissent, or distraction.

Since 1980 Americans have been made to feel powerless and give up their power to elected officials. Union membership was made to decline, and politicians, starting with Ronald Reagan, were glad to let people know that all would be well, no struggle or sacrifice needed, if you just elected them. George H W Bush's campaign song... Don't Worry, Be Happy. Bush son would encourage citizens to fight terrorists by ... going shopping.

Corporations set up astro-turf groups, and politics/govt became entangled with churches, a ready made group of voters who would dutifully follow "voter guides".

Any issue involving mass injustice, patterns of abuse, invasion of constitutional rights, or deprivation, can be addressed if private citizens transform themselves into public citizens and demand it together as a persistent force.

Most people who are powerless don’t feel good about being powerless; they just accept it. Over time, though, feelings of powerlessness can gnaw away at one’s sense of self-worth—even for those who are leading the so-called good life.

So when they start meeting other powerless people like themselves who want to learn how to take part in shaping their own futures, something wonderful is created: a small community with a serious purpose.

Overcoming Powerlessness

These two organizations, still around from the 70s, could be a place to start.
USPIRG
Common Cause

Americans must once again cross political, religious, racial, and other societal divisions to unite for change.

One ray of hope and inspiration... when both women and men found out about "trans-vaginal probes" and misinformation about pregnancy and rape, the united outcry changed politics and thus the power over them. We just have to stay united, because the attacks will not cease.

reply to post by tothetenthpower

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I'm surprised the "media" wasn't somewhere on the list as at least helping run the US. The entertainment biz as well certainly gets its fair share of criticism for "manipulating" American culture.

reply to post by TheComte

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Originally posted by TheComte
I would also include the food industry. That is pretty big and is also controlled by a few huge conglomerates. It also fits the theory nicely as a feeder mechanism for the health care racket.

Agreed, it's a terrifyingly small number.

America's Biggest Food Companies

reply to post by tothetenthpower

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I totally agree with this as well and think you are stating much of the truth here. So why when any attempt to change the status quo are made (AHCA, Occupy Wall Street) there such a big deal made over it in the negative?

Affordable Health Care is panned and it is the first small attempt to stop Health Care from becoming a "for profit" monster. We know what people here said when 'occupy' tried to make a statement to the bankers.

These are the same corporate groups democrats have been rallying against for decades.

They are influencing laws and policy now. The medical industrial complex alone would not even exist if it were not for pharmaceutical advertising. Imagine, drumming up interest in medicine, conditions and treatments by giving clever names and putting them on TV instead of waiting until patients took symptoms to a doctor? You think someone didn't make any money on that move?
Corporate "medicine" got the go ahead to advertise on TV and now pharmaceuticals are the number one cause of death. One might imagine the right thing to do would be discontinue the ads. Still waiting. That will happen when we end the wars.

Wars in fact help the Military Industrial Complex make money which is why we always seem to be in one. These groups are stock and trade of the GOP. If Romney had won the election you might have seen all 4 blossom like someone hit them with Miracle Grow. Now is bad enough, but we have to consider ourselves lucky these are not all in overdrive.

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