Warren Buffett–Jamie Dimon For Treasury Secretary
Let’s see. JP Morgan is listed as one of the systemically-risky financial institutions by the IMF. ie, It should be dismantled because its risks are systemic and cannot be managed. It gambles with trillions of dollars of other people’s money. It uses gambling instruments that are leveraged dozens to hundreds of times the capital required to buy them. And, it does so in markets that are often completely opaque so that no one really has any idea what it is really doing. It has manipulated policy of democracy and financial regulation through the use of money and power. And while the arrogance of Dimon leads him to tell little stories about not needing TARP money, the reality is the Federal Reserve squirted so much money in so many orifices and without doing so, the counterparties to Dimon’s betting parlor would have collapsed. Ditto today with massive bets made on Europe and who knows whatever else. In other words, incompetence, being rewarded, still is incompetent.
Dimon was instrumental in gutting our financial regulatory structure while at Citigroup. If by no other means than by being Sandy Weill’s protégé and because he clearly still chafes at it today. That regulatory structure was put in place because of the betting parlors and massive corruption our financial system had become that led to its collapse in the Great Depression. And, then after leaving Citi, Dimon went out to create an Orwellian organization that was far worse than any risky scheme created by Wall Street leading up to the financial collapse of 1929. Those schemes embraced by Wall Street needed tens upon tens of trillions of dollars of bailouts by the Federal Reserve and tens and tens of trillions of dollars more in implied backstopping of banking assets such as real estate and other tradable Ponzi schemes. And, most of those schemes remain in place now that we have ObamaCare for Wall Street firms. ie, Dodd-Frank, which is nothing more than more corporate welfare.
Warren Buffett has benefited tremendously by the financialization of our economy. His major holdings and major income generators are financial taxes on society. In other words, they don’t create wealth, they destroy it by levying a tax on society’s productive assets. It is becoming apparent that Buffett’s old saying that “when the tide rolls out we see who is naked” applies to his own beliefs. What about Dimon or JP Morgan leads anyone to believe he should be our Treasury Secretary? Buffett wishes not to reward democracy or virtue but instead reward more of the same. And, arguably, the worst of it. His rationale? Well, only he can answer that. But, it certainly isn’t for the betterment of society. For benefit of the self?
This world is full of endless amounts of bullshit if you listen to the endless mainstream chatter. It seems modern corporate society’s belief systems are often one big pile of bullshit. Opinion is taken as fact. Fanatics gain legitimacy. Advertising creates a reality that doesn’t even remotely exist. Con men and women loot our institutions. And people say and write absolutely false things out of complete ignorance and then they pawn it off onto other people as some level of greater truth. The world defined by the corporate state is essentially all a lie to varying degrees. So, in order to survive and even thrive in this world, we end up lying to ourselves. About almost everything. What do we actually believe in anymore?
The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love. -- Dostoyevsky
This view of Dimon being a great candidate for Treasury Secretary is a perfect example. Some fawning clown who literally doesn’t appreciate economics, monetary policy, the human psyche, what has been happening to our society for the last thirty years courtesy of Wall Street writes a dystopian biography of hero-worship that Dimon is a hero and moral compass for our nation. And, I’m sure MBA programs and the corporate state lapped this bullshit up.
Let’s take a closer look at reality.
I don’t need to point out anyone in particular. Let me just rehash a few known traits of the human condition and the tyranny of the self. These are incontrovertible facts. Any person who seeks power of any kind doesn’t do so out of virtue. They do so solely for benefit of the self. There is no such thing as benevolent dictator or a benevolent politician. There is no legitimate human authority in this world. The only legitimate authority in our world when it comes to people is reasoned, just law. Granting any person power over another human being will always result in injustices.
There most certainly is selflessness in public service or service to humanity. But not power or authority of any kind. Public service and service to humanity is about giving power and authority to others, not seeking it ourselves. There are no exceptions to this fundamental law of the human condition. This is a universal truth. Selflessness is actually derived from a physically-different part of the brain than that containing the manifested ego or self. Selflessness and the self are literally mutually-exclusive. Selflessness comes from our inner divinity. It is a physically-separate part of the brain. By the way, a billionaire giving money, that they more than likely took from someone else, to a hospital wing or college building named after him or herself is not selflessness. That is driven by ego-motive. And, that our system relies on this type of trickle-down vanity to provide for our society’s needs is typical of the injustices we see today.
When any human being seeks greater and greater power or when they show a need for more and more money beyond that which can be used to lead a humble life or they show a need for more and more physical manifestations of obscene wealth, those acts are done for one reason. They are used as armor or layers of protection to separate the self from the cycle of life. The more one seeks to separate oneself from the cycle of life, from our brothers and sisters, from nature and from other sentient beings, the more one is dealing with some manifestation of dysfunction of the self. These layers of protection that modern society provides that result in a greater and greater acquisition of power, money, fame, obscene wealth or inanimate objects are simply “things” used to hide something that is unstable about our perceptions of self. Most often they are used to ameliorate feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness or in some way to change other’s perceptions of who we are. We do that by separating ourselves. By seeking a perception of greater worthiness through the acquisition of power and authority. We do that because our perceptions of who we are without those layers or protection is one of unworthiness.
Now, to be human is to have feelings of unworthiness or inadequacy. Even if those feelings are latent or hidden from our own conscious perceptions. And, dare we ever express these vulnerabilities in a society that preys on vulnerability – a greatest of paradoxes that we live in a world that victimizes our greatest strength as sentient beings, vulnerability. But, what makes those who seek power and authority over another human being – politicians, CEOs, bureaucrats and even that power-mad “peace” officer beating people pulled over for a traffic tickets - in order to ameliorate the instabilities of the self, is that they are users. They are takers. They use and take from others to ameliorate their own inadequacies. It is a form of social violence perpetrated on others. We are the victims. And, corporate capitalism and the corporate-political fascist state glorifies this behavior by rewarding those most driven to seek that power and authority. We are so proud of Johnny. He grew up to be so successful. Johnny is a predator enabled by corporate capitalism and politicians.
As a spiritual being, I have compassion for this greater reality that defines the human condition. I know that deep inside there is something broken. Most often all that is broken are perceptions. And, those perceptions are often put there by someone else. But as a human being, I can still consciously be aware of that greater truth but recognize it is absolutely necessary to set boundaries to protect ourselves, others and society from this type of dysfunction or tyranny of the self. That means corporate capitalism and government must be ruled by laws. Laws based on moral clarity and reason so as to protect us from these unstable perceptions of self and those who would use others to ameliorate their own inner demons.
Our Treasury Secretary should be someone who has shown an ability to be selfless. Just as all public servants should be. But, given politics is an institution of the ego or control and actually subverts truth, that is most certainly not likely to happen. That is, unless we start electing people to public service who aren’t predators, sociopaths, power mongers and lunatics. That likely won’t happen until we recognize politics for what it is. That it is a control-based relic from ancient man that subverts discovery and truth.
At some point in humanity’s future politics will be replaced by a post-political form of self-rule. A world where those who threaten the community or the tribe are no longer rewarded with positions of control and authority over our lives. But, instead we reward the people who protect the community or the tribe from the dangers of our world through acts of kindness and selflessness.
Acts of altruism are what allowed humanity to flourish as a species. Not the myth of survival of the fittest or survival of the most pathological as is the case in a world defined by the corporate state.
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