Dysfunctional Money: the First Thing on Our Agenda

America is going to hell in a hand basket. Hell is the absence of all hope and, in this case, it results from a criminal denial of the role of money in our politics and a genocidal denial of the role of science in our economy. When you deny the validity of the laws of science and economics, you are beyond hope. We are not quite at that point, yet.

Reality means accepting economic and scientific laws like the power of money and the frightening findings of the environmental community. It also means being politically aware enough to reject deliberately created distractions like the fiscal cliff. The fiscal cliff was, and still is, a sideshow freak; something not to be taken seriously; something used to frighten little children or, in this case, voters.

The banks are the principal culprit but all of the players in our money system are guilty:– the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Treasury, the Congress, the Administration, and the whole Wall Street financial sector of banks, hedge funds and insurance companies. They are all part of an open conspiracy that denies their greed and pretends they manage our money for the good of the community.

Our money is compromised in the very act of its creation by the expanded role that the Federal Reserve system decided on its own authority to play in managing our economy. The U.S. Treasury is staffed by and become a branch of Wall Street. The Congress accepts campaign donations in return for evading its constitutional responsibilities. The Administration hires bankers who should rather be indicted. Some banks are considered too big to fail. Wall Street got rescued, bailed out and reimbursed for everything it lost due to its crimes. No one is minding the general welfare, the Commons.

Our politics have degenerated into an exercise in dealing with the harm done by our dysfunctional money.  We panic over symptoms and ignore the core problem.The fiscal cliff is supposed to be about the national debt and the federal deficit. But these are only a problem because the national accounting numbers do not fit the mainstream economic model. In our denial, theory supersedes facts. The cliff exercise really exists to curtail Medicare and Social Security and cut the social safety net. And other recession-relief spending.

Privatization of public goods and services is a core follow-up policy response to control of money. It is what our politics are now about. Education, prisons, war, gambling, infrastructure, law enforcement, the military, water, sewers, parking and even parking meters are all up for privatization. The privatized parking meters in downtown Chicago now charge your credit card $6.50 an hour. All of this is money seeking control of the Commons. To the historically inclined, it is a modern repeat of the 18th century Enclosure Movement.

More importantly, the denial of the validity of hard sciences is a direct attack on the environment and the Commons. This attack is a very real threat to the existence of our biosphere and therefore humanity itself. The denial of the impact of climate change, the melting of the Arctic ice, genetically modified organisms and the degradation of virtually everything is occurring because there are costs involved in protecting the commons and the polluters refuse to pay.

I hate to reference Vice President Richard Cheney but environmentalists might want to consider his proposition that if we face a threat to our existence that has a 1% chance of occurring, we have to treat its occurrence as a certainty.

But there is still hope. The people have not yet really been heard from and they are stirrings. The Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street are the first signs of the people demanding a recognition of reality by their government and both movements oppose the power of the banks. The existing power structure has fought these movements but both are morphing and building to continue the fight.

Taking away the power of the banks to control money must be the first item on a reality agenda. There is movement. Newly elected Senator Elizabeth Warren understands that the financial sector is too powerful. She has shown not just the professional banking expertise but also some talent and taste for infighting. And credit unions are alive and well. They now hold over $1 trillion in assets and serve 90 million people. If you don't now belong to a credit union, join one, join the fight.

Happy New Year! I mean that sincerely, despite the possibility that it may sound sarcastic in this time of simultaneous political gridlock, economic turmoil and the burdens of reality.