Powerful points and valid, but I am not yet wholly convinced. The system is, to use an expression, non-binary and fluid to a fault.
Business and politics are thoroughly inter-penetrated. The Western model is state-capitalism (now rapidly transitioning into crony and gangster capitalism), the fusion of public and private power, an impro…
Powerful points and valid, but I am not yet wholly convinced. The system is, to use an expression, non-binary and fluid to a fault.
Business and politics are thoroughly inter-penetrated. The Western model is state-capitalism (now rapidly transitioning into crony and gangster capitalism), the fusion of public and private power, an improved, functional, and camouflaged attempt to achieve what fascism merely promised: the eradication of the division between public and private power.
Detroit and the Rust Belt did not benefit from shipping industry overseas, but the corporate elite and investors sure did. And deindustrialisation is a gold mine for predatory business provided that they have deep enough reserves of cash (or access to long-term credit on agreeable terms) so as to buy up assets sold by distressed sellers. The deindustrialisaton of New York city was in fact driven by city planners in the pocket of the Rockefellers because the relevant financial advisers calculated that they would get better returns on a buoyant retail and middle class housing market than a manufacturing base (I found Robert Fitch's book on this very informative, see https://www.versobooks.com/books/689-the-assassination-of-new-york).
The key decision-making strata of the state circulate across sectors, the so-called 'revolving door' while regulatory agencies are captured by business interests who use red-tape and punitive regulation to suppress competition. The top bureaucrats are focused on their careers and these extend across sectors into business: the perspectives of future colleagues and employers are never far from their minds. Captains of industry crafted Roosevelt's New Deal and the current 'Green Agenda' is a ploy by big business to get subsidies and regulation rigged on behalf of key industry players and investors.
The distinction between power and money is relevant only at the level of small and medium sized firms, if it is indeed relevant at all. Happy to be proven wrong, but we fight a hydra.
Powerful points and valid, but I am not yet wholly convinced. The system is, to use an expression, non-binary and fluid to a fault.
Business and politics are thoroughly inter-penetrated. The Western model is state-capitalism (now rapidly transitioning into crony and gangster capitalism), the fusion of public and private power, an improved, functional, and camouflaged attempt to achieve what fascism merely promised: the eradication of the division between public and private power.
Detroit and the Rust Belt did not benefit from shipping industry overseas, but the corporate elite and investors sure did. And deindustrialisation is a gold mine for predatory business provided that they have deep enough reserves of cash (or access to long-term credit on agreeable terms) so as to buy up assets sold by distressed sellers. The deindustrialisaton of New York city was in fact driven by city planners in the pocket of the Rockefellers because the relevant financial advisers calculated that they would get better returns on a buoyant retail and middle class housing market than a manufacturing base (I found Robert Fitch's book on this very informative, see https://www.versobooks.com/books/689-the-assassination-of-new-york).
The key decision-making strata of the state circulate across sectors, the so-called 'revolving door' while regulatory agencies are captured by business interests who use red-tape and punitive regulation to suppress competition. The top bureaucrats are focused on their careers and these extend across sectors into business: the perspectives of future colleagues and employers are never far from their minds. Captains of industry crafted Roosevelt's New Deal and the current 'Green Agenda' is a ploy by big business to get subsidies and regulation rigged on behalf of key industry players and investors.
The distinction between power and money is relevant only at the level of small and medium sized firms, if it is indeed relevant at all. Happy to be proven wrong, but we fight a hydra.