Tag Archives: plutocracy

Plutocrats Brag: We Win Because You Fail to Vote

Posted on October 20, 2016 by William Black | 9 comments

By William K. Black
October 20, 2016 Kansas City, MO

The New Democrats and their Republican counterparts’ economic policies have created a rigged system of crony capitalism. Crony capitalism produces devastating epidemics of elite fraud that have shrunk the overall economic “pie” and distributed the “pie” overwhelmingly in favor of corrupt corporate elites like Donald Trump and their political cronies like the Clintons. Wall Street has been open about being ecstatic about the rise of what Citigroup infamously labelled and celebrated — a “plutonomy.”

In a plutonomy there … are rich consumers, few in number, but disproportionate in the gigantic slice of income and consumption they take. There are the rest, the “non-rich”, the multitudinous many, but only accounting for surprisingly small bites of the national pie.

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged plutocracy, plutocrats

Zachary Karabell and our Flawed “Society of Apologists for Plutocrats (SAPs)”

Posted on April 21, 2014 by William Black | 5 comments

By William K. Black

Slate has replaced one minor member of the Society of Apologists for Plutocrats (SAPs), Matt Yglesias, with another, Zachary Karabell. The transition has been seamless. As I noted in my prior column, Karabell’s initial columns served up apologias for extraordinary executive compensation and extreme inequality, high youth unemployment, and high frequency trading (HFT) scams. Karabell is the type of Wall Streeter who thinks it reflects well on him that he has been a “regular” on CNBC, rather than an admission of grave defects of character and intellect. Similarly, he thinks it is an honor that he was dubbed a bright young thing (a decade ago) by the denizens of Davos, the club for selfless plutocrats eager to “take up the white man’s burden.”

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged accounting control fraud, Control Fraud, Great Financial Crisis, insider trading, Karabell, plutocracy, plutocrats, Slate

Is the MSM Blackout on Inequality, Plutocracy, and Oligarchy Ending?

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Joe Firestone | 14 comments

By Joe Firestone

All of a sudden MSNBC cable commentators are talking about plutocracy and oligarchy. Surprisingly, the first occurrence of this I’m aware of was Chuck Todd, reacting on his Daily Rundown show to the spectacle of Republican candidates traveling to Vegas to seek funding from Sheldon Adelson and his group of hugely wealthy Jewish Republican donors. Todd began to explore the implications of that event. He seemed exercised, and more than the slightest bit upset, about its meaning for Democracy and used the words plutocracy and oligarchy. Andrea Mitchell also discussed it later and she, too, registered apparent dismay, while using the “p” and “o” words.

Chris Hayes has been on leave during this period, so we haven’t heard from him about this. But Chris Matthews, the “oh so very slightly left-of-center insider” has been making very unfriendly noises about Adelson, the Kochs, and the Supremes, culminating today (April 3rd) with nasty references to plutocrats, oligarchs, and candidates, kissing oligarchs somewhere or other, on both his program and Al Sharpton’s.

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Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged Abby Hunstman, deficit spending, inequality, jamie galbraith, Krystal Ball, MMT, modern money theory, oligarchy, plutocracy, REAL fiscal responsibility, Susan Ochs, Thomas Piketty, threat to democracy

An Open Letter to Don Beyer, VA – 8th Candidate for Congress

Posted on March 21, 2014 by Joe Firestone | 2 comments

By Joe Firestone

My Congressman, Jim Moran, is retiring this year and his seat is up for grabs in the VA – 8th Congressional District. This is a solidly blue district made even more solid by the Republican gerrymander following their win in the disastrous elections (for poor people, for women, for the middle class, and for minorities) of 2010 in Virginia. So, the question is, which of the eleven candidates who are running in the primary will win it, and become the heavy favorite to win the Congressional election in November.

The heavy primary favorite is Don Beyer, a noted auto dealer in Northern Virginia, who has served as Lieutenant Governor twice, and also as Ambassador to Switzerland. My impression of Ambassador Beyer has been favorable. I have a friend who bought cars from him over many years and who had his Volvos serviced at his dealership all the while, and he had nothing but good things to say about the integrity of the service he received.

That said, however, and personal characteristics aside, I’d like Beyer to clarify his positions on the issues. So, I’m addressing this open letter to him.

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Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged austerity, deficit reduction, Don Beyer, entitlements, High Value Platinum Coin Seigniorage, HR 676, HVPCS, job guarantee, medicare, medicare for all, MMT, Modern Monet Theory, plutocracy, representation, Social Security, VA - 8th primary

The Game Theoretical CEO: An Inexplicable Lawful Agent

Posted on June 24, 2013 by Devin Smith | 1 comment

By William K. Black
(Cross posted at Benzinga.com)

Introduction

This is the sixth (and final) of my series of articles on the work of Roger Myerson, a 2007 Laureate in Economics. Myerson’s work on CEOs is typical of the game theoretical approach to explaining the behavior of CEOs and firms, so I am discussing an exemplar rather than an outlier. This installment discusses some of the fatal flaws that I argue characterize the game theoretical work on CEOs by the Laureates. I will urge that they are weakest where they believe they are strongest – their models. The article explains why the models are specified incorrectly because the models have no coherent theory (or understanding) of fraud or ethics. The game theoretical Laureates (Laureates) make unsupportable implicit assumptions that are belied by the data and internally inconsistent with their explicit assumptions.

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Tagged accounting control fraud, bankster, Control Fraud, crony capitalism, Myerson, plutocracy, plutocrats

Myerson’s Ode to Crony Capitalism

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Devin Smith | 7 comments

By William K. Black

This is the fifth installment in my series of article about the predictive and policy failures of Roger Myerson, Nobel Laureate in economics in 2007. My first two articles critiqued his claim that capitalism’s unique advantage over communism is plutocracy because only exceptionally wealthy CEOs can be successfully bribed by their shareholders to “imitate” “good” CEOs who will not cheat the shareholders.

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged accounting control fraud, bankster, Control Fraud, crony capitalism, Myerson, plutocracy, plutocrats

Myerson’s misses the Miasma that is Modern Executive Compensation

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Devin Smith | 5 comments

By William K. Black

This is the fourth installment of my exploration of the work of Roger Myerson, Nobel Laureate in economics in 2007. It is part of what will be a broader series of articles exploring why economics is unique among the sciences in awarding the Prize to scholars whose predictive work proves profoundly wrong and leads to public policies that cause great harm. The first installment used Myerson’s Prize lecture to explore his paean to plutocracy as the purported unique advantage of capitalism.

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged accounting control fraud, banksters, Control Fraud, executive compensation, Myerson, plutocracy, plutocrats

Myerson’s newest model: “tax poor workers to subsidize rich bankers”

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Devin Smith | 10 comments

By William K. Black

Roger Myerson has recently updated an article on his purported mechanism for explaining why our supposedly efficient markets are producing growing crises.

A MODEL OF MORAL-HAZARD CREDIT CYCLES (March 2010, revised September 2012)

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged accounting control fraud, banksters, Control Fraud, plutocracy, plutocrats

Roger Myerson Updated Paean to Plutocrats as Capitalism’s Greatest Treasure

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Devin Smith | 4 comments

By William K. Black
(Cross posted at Benzinga.com)

In my first article on the Nobel Laureate Roger Myerson’s failed policies that helped make finance so criminogenic that it drove the ongoing financial crisis I began the exploration of Myerson’s claim that plutocrats constituted the unique advantage of capitalism over a system that forbade privately-owned firms. Myerson calls a system that forbids privately-owned firms “socialism.” He asserts that plutocrats demonstrate the accuracy of Friedrich von Hayek’s assertion of the inherent advantage of “capitalism.” My first article used Myerson’s Prize lecture to explore why his methodology, theories, and recommended policies failed so spectacularly. This article expands on that theme by citing other work by Myerson.

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Posted in William K. Black

Tagged accounting control fraud, banksters, Control Fraud, plutocracy, plutocrats

Roger Myerson’s Paean to Plutocracy

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Devin Smith | 11 comments

By William K. Black
(Cross posted at Benzinga.com)

Introduction

This article begins a project to critique the work by economists concerning regulation that has led to the award of Nobel prizes. The prize in economics in honor of Alfred Nobel is unique. It is not part of the formal Nobel Prize system. It was created by a large Swedish bank and it is the only “science” prize frequently given to those who proved incorrect. The theme of my series is how poorly the work has stood the test of predictive accuracy. Worse, it has led to policies in the private and public sector that are criminogenic and explain our recurrent, intensifying financial crises.

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