Slog Comments

In the early 1900s, Louis Brandeis wrote the epochal book explaining the monopolistic plutocratic situation at that time, titled, Other People's Money and How the Bankers Use It. Today, sadly, we don't have anyone quite of his stature, so we must post the question .....

What Would Louis Brandeis Do ? ? ?

Today at the ringing of the NYSE bell, a bunch of CEOs yelled, "Fix the debt!"

Fine, so let's attack it the proper way by asking, "What would Louis Brandeis do?"

First, he would identify the culprits, those who generated and benefitted from creating the vast national debt --- Justice Brandeis would have vociferously urged, "follow the money."

The incredible national debt derives, principally, from two sources:

shadow banking and the enormous sums spent on military offense (yes, the Wall Street-owned politicians refer to it as "defense" --- but it's all offensive in nature and spirity).

To identify the culprits, we must assiduously identify the owners of ExxonMobil, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, GE, AT&T, Bank of America, Citigroup, et al. --- the owners MUST be known, and yes, there are indeed owners.

Next, we must identify those who actually physically owns America --- this may require massive forensic audits of endless land trusts --- bt so be it!

After the owners and perpetrators of shadow banking have been identified --- they must then return all the money they've stolen. Some are obvious, as they are the vocal ones pushing for austerity on the rest of us: Peter G. Peterson (and his lackeys like Erskine Bowles, Jim Kolbe, Alice Rivlin, et c.), the funders of the Hoover Institute, the Cato Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Brookings Institution, etc., etc.

Obviously, we're aware of the Koch brothers, but little is known of the others who force their debt upon us. And then there's Jon Corzine and that missing billion or so?

The perps behind the endless shadow banking scams (and illegal rehypothecation in America) have parked trillions and trillions of capital offshore --- amounts which will easily pay off "our" debt which they created!

There's missing billions during military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and let us never forget that unaccounted for $2.3 trillion announced by the Pentagon's comptroller --- at a press conference --- on 9/10/01.

Again, obviously, with the growing national debt it becomes increasingly difficult for the super-rich to sell their junk bonds --- but that's a problem of their own creation. (And accounts for their own billionaire fortunes.)

Today they call them bonds (junk bonds) --- tomorrow the Fed refers to them as "toxic assets" and removes them from their books --- QE to infinity!!!!!!