Japan's Nuclear Meltdown, the Economic Meltdown, and the Gulf Oil Meltdown All Happened for the SAME REASON → Washingtons Blog
Japan's Nuclear Meltdown, the Economic Meltdown, and the Gulf Oil Meltdown All Happened for the SAME REASON - Washingtons Blog

Friday, April 8, 2011




As the Nation pointed out:





As the Christian Science Monitor notes:











The nuclear accident was largely caused because of Tepco's penny-pinching, just as the Gulf oil spill was caused by the fact that BP cut every corner in the book ( see this, this, this, this, and this).



And the same is true of the economic crisis. As I've extensively documented, the crisis was caused by big banks and other financial players taking irresponsible and speculative gambles, committing fraud and fudging the numbers, using too much leverage, moral hazard, and other dangerous behavior. See this and this. And - just as with the nuclear and oil industries - the government "regulators" have all be captured by the big companies they are supposed to police, helped the bank robbers pull off the heist, and then helped cover it up afterwards.

Stiglitz Speaks Truth to Power


As Linda Keenan and Janine R. Wedel note:


The personal and the political are today in perfect alignment. Virtually all U.S. senators, and most...[House] representatives...are members of the top 1 percent....are kept in office by money from the top 1 percent, and know that if they serve the top 1 percent well they will be rewarded by the top 1 percent when they leave office. By and large, the key executive-branch policymakers on trade and economic policy also come from the top 1 percent. When pharmaceutical companies receive a trillion-dollar gift--through legislation prohibiting the government...from bargaining over price--it should not come as cause for wonder....Given the power of the top 1 percent, this is the way you would expect the system to work.




The CEO of mine operator Massey, who retired a few months back, is due to get a reported 12 million dollars, a year after Massey's Upper Big Branch mine exploded, killing dozens. And then there's egg producer Jack DeCoster, who's been called "Teflon Chicken Don." For years DeCoster has fought various workplace safety and environmental violations. Yet here's what one lawyer who sued DeCoster's company said about him, to Tribune reporter Andrew Zajac: "He gets fined and things happen to him, but he comes back. He always bounces back."


As Stiglitz wrote Wednesday:


This brings us to the next question: are there other "black swan" events waiting to happen? Unfortunately, some of the really big risks that we face today are most likely not even rare events. The good news is that such risks can be controlled at little or no cost. The bad news is that doing so faces strong political opposition - for there are people who profit from the status quo.








As one commentator passionately put it:

Make no mistake. Nuclear power can be safe... if designed by honest and prudent people. Make no mistake. The economies of nations and planets can function well, and life can continuously improve... if only real, physical goods (including gold and silver) are exchanged in transactions.


Honesty => life, health, happiness, success.
Dishonesty => death, disease, misery, failure.

The dishonest [...] the predators must go.

Instead, it is a question of
the powers-that-be waging war on the freedom and wealth of the American people. ... and the people of the entire world.


  1. Very Good. Very, very, very Good!

  2. Thank you - excellent - posting on FB and sharing widely.

  3. Totally agree that we must drive these power-brokers from the Commons and control of our collective destiny. Why would these global capitalists do anything right when they make so much money from doing it wrong? Changing would cost them too much money!

  4. This is a very good article your articles are hopefully getting through to more and more people building a base on which enough citizens can be called to action.

    It is true that the balance of policy making has been captured by corporate influence who care not about the people...

    Each firm has tremendous influence over lawmakers and regulators; going as far as fashioning the rules that regulate them. Not only do we send the Fox to guard the Hen House, we let them write the terms of the contract. And, when the Hen's are decimated we call on the very same Foxes to clean up the mess.

    Due in part to their corrupt relationships and lax oversight, many companies have moved further afield; perpetrating fraud, some multiple times, causing devastating harm to the American people. That said, the true culprit is the Federal Government and our sycophant "representatives" whose total abdication of oversight and leadership set the table for these disasters.

    Historically, such self dealing and overt corrupt policies lead to trouble. And when it comes; out of convenience and as a cover of misdirection (obfuscation), the here-to-fore benefactor corporation (usually because of a particularly egregious affront) is targeted for discipline. At this point, the previously asleep at the wheel regulator reappears on the scene to put their "boot on the neck" of the bad seed. Thus; we get sweeping reform, perhaps a show trial and a toothless shuffling reshuffling of regulatory responsibility and captured government stooges who failed their obligations in the first place. Rinse and repeat!

    These corporations egregious acts and arrogance seem outrageous to hard working, do the right thing Americans. But, among the Washington DC Kleptocracy they're right at home.

    See: BP: Beyond Pathetic; An American Metaphor - http://notionalvalue.blogspot.com/2010/06/bp-beyond-pathetic-american-metaphor.html






-- Comments that explicitly call for violence
