Part 3
Petrograd connection, planning and statecraft:
Saving nations from financial raiders
Wendell W Solomons
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The Asian Monetary Crisis saw financial terrorism AFP
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Over the years her marketers fused her self-adulation axiom with
"self respect." In a final phase, when Great Communicator Ronald Reagan
arrived in the Presidency, Ayn Rand's axiom merged with the story
"Customer is King" (well-known advertising glitter.) It went out then to
media under headings such as, "Free to Choose."
That crept into ethics and morality as (I am) "Free to Choose" (and
the devil take my neighbour) Out at No: 10, Downing Street, philosopher
in residence Alan Walters, so mesmerised PM Margaret Thatcher that she
exalted, "There's no such thing as society; there are only individuals
and families".
Thin edge
Rand's nihilist fable had annulled society and provided Reagan-allied
PM Thatcher with steely self-righteousness to sell out her 'null'
constituency if she so desired (that is, after collecting the deposit of
people's votes at the elections.)
The worth of her constituency could now unflinchingly become the
influence that the PM's office gives to the personas of Dennis and
Margaret Thatcher. Still, that was only the thin edge of the wedge.
The Ayn Rand axiom on neglecting community led on to encourage
negligence on the part of countless politicians, State officials and
market regulators. This gave the first among equals, the financiers, a
30-year ticket to run.
Safeguards against toxic waste
Joseph Stiglitz, a 2001 Nobel prizewinner, comments in part on the
results of negligence, "The pursuit of self-interest by Enron and
WorldCom did not lead to societal well-being; and the pursuit of
self-interest by those in the financial industry has brought our economy
to the brink of the abyss".
Financial fraud was a known phenomenon. Anglo-American Statesmen had
at home therefore long balanced Adam Smith by installing filters to
block wrongdoers. The institutions that Statesmen created to keep away
the pursuit of dangerous self-interest include Fair Trading bodies and
Securities Commissions.
Later, shortsightedness generated by the monetarists did away with
these filters against the creation of toxic waste.
Yet, even beyond that Friedman, during a descent from his
corresponding Planet Me, was to confess that he had overlooked THE RULE
OF LAW as a fundamental requirement in transition to a market economy.
Make a clean nihilist sweep first; ask questions about civil
requirements later. J K Galbraith comments about his contemporary, "Milton's
problem is that his theories have been tried". Today, reports on toxic
waste fill the same network media that promoted the Chicago Boys after
Great Communicator Ronald Reagan went into occupation of the Oval
Office.
Human freedom
Still, there's more. Petrograd's Ayn Rand had chosen to outbid
revolutionary parties by offering a more radical human freedom. Using
that legend, the Chicago Boys mired potential revolutionaries, peaceful
or otherwise, in the ever-changing consumer choices that media
advertising generates Ä Windows Me, My Yahoo, i-Mac, i-Pod Ä a wave of
products catering for 'me' (and not 'you'!) President Kennedy once said,
"Those who make peaceful revolutions impossible will make violent
revolutions inevitable."
If a peaceful return to a normally functioning economy is impaired,
then today's consumers will seek salvation otherwise.
If high-end financial planning does not finally pay off Ä to speak of
the future hypothetically Ä it is China's central planning system that
may save souls who in fishing trawlers and yachts, cast off from the US
Pacific rim for China.
Ground for salvation
In Russia, on April 6, 2009 Vladimir Putin decided to place before
the modern Duma for debate for the first time, the State budget.
Considering his country's available know-how, this step can prepare
the ground for a salvation that includes activating the personnel of
central planning administration GOSPLAN.
It was set aside with subversive intentions by the USAID team
gathered by Lawrence Summers.
He was previously on the reform team that bequeathed Lithuania the
highest suicide rate in Europe.
Wall Street has seated a veteran guide of financial buccaneering as
head of President Obama's White House Economic Council.
Can we say "Yes, Wall Street financial planners will eliminate toxic
waste creation soon?" Or perhaps an IMF super currency may help nations
trade internationally if gold is stockpiled by bullion merchants as
blueprinted by the 1930s Great Depression?
Careful rationing
Germany's Angela Merkel is now in the forefront of the EU movement to
bring back rules so that the trade of nations can again flow
undisturbed. Yet, for many a nation survival will require careful
rationing, supported by economic planning, to utilise food and other
resources that are becoming scarce and expensive.
Coping with the recession will be easier in China. The Chicago school
monetarists who canvassed in favour of invasion by raiders, could not
talk this developing country into setting aside its planning system.
Financial planning
Ex-Warsaw pact countries including Czechia, Poland and Russia use
budgetary systems today that can be reinforced when their own central
planning resources are activated.
Citizens of Germany's east also share the experience that was envied
for the early revival it provided from ruin after WWII.
On the other hand, today's trade flows will be hurt by nations that
rely solely on high level financial planning.
The Asian Monetary Crisis saw financial terrorism surface to foretell
in the 1990s how good assets could suddenly convert to toxic ones.
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